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Author: Smaill, Belinda
PhysDes: Article
Subject: DOCUMENTARY FILMS. AUSTRALIA; ASIANS IN FILMS. AUSTRALIA; ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE CINEMA; PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF FILMS; FINISHED PEOPLE, THE (AT, Khoa Do, 2003); LETTERS TO ALI (AT, Clara Law, 2004); SADNESS: A MONOLOGUE BY WILLIAM YANG (AT, Tony Ayres, 1999); CHINESE TAKEAWAY (AT, Mitzi Goldman, 2002)
Summary: Documentary is a genre not widely understood through its capacity to engage the emotions. This article works to acknowledge the affective labour performed by documentary and, more specifically, the way emotions give meaning to documentary subjects. The analysis explores the production of Asian Australian subjects as documentary authors in four prominent films produced over the previous decade: Chinese Takeaway (Mitzi Goldman, 2002), Sadness: A Monologue by William Yang (Tony Ayres, 1999), The Finished People (Khoa Do, 2003) and Letters to Ali (Clara Law. 2004). These texts allow for a fruitful examination of the way the emotions that shape the expression of these author-subjects, such as mourning and care, might impact on the documentary representation of cultural otherness. Asian Australian subjectivity coalesces in and around these texts in a manner that is founded on the activity of mourning. Included here are not only the bereavements of loved ones, but also the losses that are bound to the movements of modernity, such as the lost fullness which is the promise of diaspora, the failure or absence of universal citizenship and the lack of safety in life lived in advanced capitalism. This article explores not only the absences suggested in these films, but also how these absences present a site of ethical encounter for the viewer that both resists reducing and assimilating the Asian Australian author to a devalued ethnic other while also addressing a community of viewers through a relation of reciprocity based in caring attachments to the social realm. -- Abstract
Notes: Part of Special Issue: Transnational Asian Australian Cinema. Part 1

Call No: 461 COM
Author: Smith, Stacy L.; Choueiti, Marc; Pieper, Katherine
Source: US
Publisher: USC Anneberg School of Communication and Journalism
PubDate: Feb 22 2016
Subject: WOMEN FILM WORKERS; ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE CINEMA; RACIAL ISSUES AND THE CINEMA; FILM WORKERS; INDUSTRY, FILM
Summary: The Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity examines inclusion from CEO to every speaking character across film, television and digital content in America. This report was developed by The Media, Diversity, & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism dedicated to addressing issues of inequality in entertainment. "The Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity (CARD) assesses inclusion on screen and behind the camera in fictional films, TV shows, and digital series distributed by 10 major media companies (21st Century Fox, CBS, Comcast NBC Universal, Sony, The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix). Movies theatrically released in 2014 by the major studios or their art house divisions were included in the sample, provided they met a certain threshold of domestic box office performance (see Appendix A).¹ Prime-time first run scripted series as well as digital offerings airing from September 1st 2014 to August 31st 2015 were sampled on broadcast, popular basic cable, premium channels or streaming services associated with the companies listed above (see Appendix B).² In total, the sample included 414 stories or 109 motion pictures and 305 broadcast, cable, and digital series. The major unit of analysis was the speaking or named character.³ Each speaking character was assessed for role, demographics, domesticity, and hypersexualization.4 Behind the camera, the gender of directors and writers of each film and every episode within a sampled series was evaluated. Race/ethnicity was assessed for directors of movies as well as those helming the season premiere episode of television/digital programs. Finally, the gender composition of CEOs, members of executive suites, boards of directors, and employees at the Executive" [Taken from the executive summary included in the report]
Notes: Available at: http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/CARDReport%20FINAL%2022216.ashx

Call No: SUBJECT CLIPPINGS FILE
PhysDes: Clippings
Subject: ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE CINEMA

Author: Verhoeven, Deb
PhysDes: Article
Subject: HISTORY OF CINEMA. AUSTRALIA; DISTRIBUTION. AUSTRALIA; EXHIBITION. AUSTRALIA; AUDIENCES. AUSTRALIA; ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE CINEMA
Summary: From the late 1940s until the late 1970s Melbourne was home to a dynamic Greek cinema circuit made up of some 30 different inner-city and suburban venues operated by a handful of vertically integrated exhibition/distribution businesses. Dionysos Films was amongst the first Greek film exhibition/distribution companies to form in Australia and from 1949 until 1956 it operated with little significant competition, establishing the parameters for a diasporic Greek film circuit that stretched across regional and metropolitan Australia and into New Zealand. This article measures the shadow cast by Dionysos Films (and its charismatic proprietor Stathis Raftopoulos) over the history of Antipodean Greek film experiences and the implications that this neglected aspect of Australian and Greek film history has for our understanding of the national cinemas in both countries. -- Abstract