Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice

by Marijke de Valck (Editor), Brendan Kredell (Editor), Skadi Loist (Editor)

Overview

The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in film festivals, with the field growing to a position of prominence within the space of a few short years. Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice represents a major addition to the literature on this topic, offering an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the area. With a combination of chapters specifically examining history, theory, method and practice, it offers a clear structure and systematic approach for the study of film festivals.

Offering a collection of essays written by an international range of established scholars, it discusses well-known film festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, but equally devotes attention to the diverse range of smaller and/or specialized events that take place around the globe. It provides essential knowledge on the origin and development of film festivals, discusses the use of theory to study festivals, explores the methods of ethnographic and archival research, and looks closely at the professional practice of programming and film funding. Each section, moreover, is introduced by the editors, and all chapters include useful suggestions for further reading.

This will be an essential textbook for students studying film festivals as part of their film, media and cultural studies courses, as well as a strong research tool for scholars that wish to familiarize themselves with this burgeoning field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317267201
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/26/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Marijke de Valck is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. She is a well-known specialist of film festival studies and author of Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia (2007). She co-founded the Film Festival Research Network and is co-editor of the book series Framing Film Festivals.

Brendan Kredell is Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Oakland University. His research focuses on media and urban studies, an area in which he has published widely. He received a Fulbright fellowship for his work on culture-led urban redevelopment and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Skadi Loist is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Media Research of the University of Rostock. She co-founded the Film Festival Research Network and serves as member of the Steering Committee of NECS. Her research interests include film festivals, queer cinema and media industries. She has worked with the Hamburg International Queer Film Festival since 2002.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Film Festival and Film Culture’s Transnational Essence

Dina Iordanova

Introduction

What is a Film Festival? How to Study Festivals and Why You Should

Marijke de Valck

Part I

History

Introduction

Brendan Kredell

1 Making Film History at the Cannes film festival

Dorota Ostrowska

2 Film Festivals in Asia: Notes on History, Geography and Power from a Distance

Julian Stringer

3 The Film Festival Circuit: Networks, Hierarchies, and Circulation

Skadi Loist

Part II

Theory

Introduction

Marijke de Valck

4 Contingency, Time and Event: An Archaeological Approach to the Film Festival

Janet Harbord

5 Publics and Counterpublics: Rethinking Film Festivals as Public Spheres

Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong

6 Fostering Art, Adding Value, Cultivating Taste: Film Festivals as Sites of Cultural Legitimization

Marijke de Valck

Part III

Method

Introduction

Skadi Loist

7 Being There, Taking Place: Ethnography at the Film Festival

Toby Lee

8 On Studying Film Festival Ephemera: The Case of Queer Film Festivals and Archives of Feelings

Ger Zielinski

9 Positionality and Film Festival Research: A Conversation

Diane Burgess and Brendan Kredell

Part IV

Practice

Introduction

Brendan Kredell

10 Seeing Differently: The Curatorial Potential of Film Festival Programming

Roya Rastegar

11 Affective Labor and the Work of Film Festival Programming

Liz Czach

12 "The Festival Film": Film Festival Funds as Cultural Intermediaries

Tamara L. Falicov

Editorial Reviews

"Bringing together leading film festivals scholars, this book is a welcome and much needed addition both to the growing field of festival studies, and world cinema more generally. Festivals, no doubt, offer the most fruitful ground on which to investigate the transnational dynamic of cinema, but they are a complex phenomenon and anything but easy to study. Because they present such a dizzying convergence of numerous elements—cinephilia, tourism, art, business, geopolitics—they have escaped the traditional, rather limited frameworks in film studies. This volume brings these diverse dimensions together in a systematic method, offering productive theoretical and practical tools with which to address both the specificity of particular festivals and their embeddedness in a larger festival and cultural network."

-Meta Mazaj, Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies, University of Pennsylvania

"For any scholar interested in the part played by film festivals in the emerging study of transnational film culture this excellent collection provides a comprehensive and vital starting point."

- Gareth Stanton, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London

"... the present volume treats film festivals theoretically and comparatively, considering them as networked sites that negotiate cultural capital on local, national, and global scales. Contributors include many of the key researchers in the field, among them Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong, author of the terrific Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen (2011). Valck includes in this skillfully edited collection essays not only on Cannes and Asian film festivals but also on “identity-based community festivals." ... this book is required reading for anyone interested in the subject."

- S. C. Dillon, Bates College

From the Publisher