Film and Risk

by Mette Hjort

Overview

An interdisciplinary collection exploring the many ways risk plays a role in film.

The phenomenon of risk has been seriously neglected in connection with the study of film, yet many of those who write about film seem to have intuitions about how various forms of risk-taking shape aspects of the filmmaking or film-viewing process. Film and Risk fills this gap as editor Mette Hjort and interdisciplinary contributors discuss film’s relation to all types of risk. Bringing together scholars from philosophy, anthropology, film studies, economics, and cultural studies, as well as experts from the fields of law, filmmaking, and photojournalism, this volume discusses risk from multiple intriguing angles.

In thirteen chapters, contributors consider concrete risks (e.g., stunts or financial decisions); theoretical aesthetic and artistic risks (e.g., filmmakers who incorporate excessive hazards into their films); and the real-world jeopardy spectators might put themselves in when viewing films. The first three chapters tackle the conceptual terrain that is relevant to understanding risk in film. The next three chapters focus on risk as it pertains to the practice of filmmaking. Subsequent chapters deal with economic risk and the role that risk has in the development of film’s institutional landscape. The scholarship in this collection is impressive, boasting some of the top writers in their respective fields.

Through the contributors’ clear and thorough discussions, this cohesive but diverse collection shows that risk arises in many different areas that tend to be thought of as central to film studies. Scholars of film studies will appreciate this daring and inventive collection, and readers with a general interest in film studies will enjoy its accessible style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814336113
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Mette Hjort is the chair professor and head of visual studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, an affiliate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Washington–Seattle, and an honorary professor at CEMES, University of Copenhagen. She is the author, editor, and translator of numerous books, including Lone Scherfig’s "Italian for Beginners" and Small Nation, Global Cinema. She edits the Nordic Film Classics Series for the University of Washington Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The Film Phenomenon and How Risk Pervades It Mette Hjort 1

Flamboyant Risk Taking: Why Some Filmmakers Embrace Avoidable and Excessive Risks Mette Hjort 31

True Stories of Risk Inadvertence Trevor Ponech 55

Spectatorship and Risk Paisley Livingston 73

Stunt Workers and Spectacle: Ethnography of Physical Risk in Hollywood and Hong Kong Sylvia J. Martin 97

The Canary in the Gemeinschaft? Disability, Film, and the Jewish Question Faye Ginsburg 115

Accented Filmmaking and Risk Taking in the Age of Postcolonial Militancy, Terrorism, Globalization, Wars, Oppression, and Occupation Hamid Naficy 143

Multinational Casts and Epistemic Risk: The Case of Pan-Asian Cinema Jinhee Choi 165

The Financial and Economic Risks of Film Production Michael Pokorny John Sedgwick 181

Motion Picture Finance and Risk in the United States Bill Grantham 197

Encouraging Artistic Risk Taking through Film Policy: The Case of New Danish Screen Eva Novrup Redvall 209

After the Decisive Moment: Moving beyond Photojournalism's High-Risk Mode Michelle L. Woodward 227

Chance and Change Rod Stoneman 245

Film and the Environment: Risk Offscreen Richard Maxwell Toby Miller 271

Contributors 291

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University and Author of the Honeymooners (Wayne State University Press, 2009) - David Sterritt

Film and Risk makes an original and invigorating contribution to film studies, illuminating areas of philosophical, sociopolitical, and aesthetic interest that should compel the attention of thoughtful readers across the entire spectrum of the humanities."

Professor of Film Studies and English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln - Wheeler Winston Dixon

This is a daring, important, inventive book, which takes significant 'risks' itself, which result in a dazzling payoff."