In an article in the Scottish cultural magazine, The Drouth, Mark Cousins provocatively bemoaned the lack of a vibrant film culture in Scotland. Putting Iran's cinematic achievements forward as a – perhaps surprising – example, Cousins identifies several reasons for Scotland's underdevelopment, most of which revolve around a lack of experimentation and a general absence of interest in exploring...

As both programmers of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) film festivals and a certain percentage of their attendees will acknowledge, the lesbian feature film is the most persistently elusive of programming elements. Of course curators have other urgent desiderata: formally challenging work, work by people of colour and from underrepresented nations, transgender films. But the lesbian fea...

During a study of Botryosphaeriaceae species associated with grapevine trunk diseases in the Czech Republic, collection 22 Botryosphaeriaceae-like strains were isolated from four cultivars (Blaufränkisch, Pálava, Pinot Noir, and Welschriesling) distinct vineyards. Based on morphology DNA sequence data (ITS, tub2, tef), identified: Botryosphaeria dothidea, Diplodia mutila, D. seriata, Neofusicoc...

Gladiatorial combat was in reality a lot less lethal than it is depicted in the cinema. This short paper highlights how cooperative strategies could have prevailed in the arenas, which is generally what happened during the Games. Cooperation in the arena corresponded to a situation of the professionalization of gladiators, who been trained in gladiatorial schools. This case provides an analogy ...

This paper describes a creative industries research project that has applied quantitative approaches commonly used in scientific research to the study of international cinema performance. Using film screening data collected over a two year period, this paper discusses analysis of a global dataset using Appadurai’s “-scapes” framework. We have identified several of these “-scapes” that help us i...

This paper explores the contentious notion of experiential narrative and proposes the first step in a narrative framework for game environment. It argues for a shift in emphasis from story-telling, the dominant mode of narrative in literature and cinema, to story generation. To this effect the paper forwards a perspective on experiential narrative that is grounded in the specific qualities of t...

Films portray mental illness and mental health problems in a variety of ways. Some can be used to teach medical students and psychiatric trainees about certain aspects of psychiatry: watching a film is useful when learning about mental state examination, how to reach a diagnosis, doctor-patient interactions and personality disorder. I have chosen a list of films to watch for each of these topic...

This thesis develops techniques and methods that extend the art and craft of storytelling, and in particular enable the creation of mobile cinema. Stories are always constrained by the medium in which they are told and the mode by which they are delivered to an audience. This dissertation addresses the design of content, systems, and tools that facilitate the emerging type of computational audi...

This article examines cinematic remembrances of the Atlantic slave trade through the lens of Paul Robeson-starring British film The Song of Freedom (1936). An exceptional visualization of the horrors of the Middle Passage in transatlantic interwar cinema, the production nevertheless recapitulates an abolitionist visual paradigm characterized by lacunae and distortion. Yet, it also serves as an ...

Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) is the story of two girls in New Zealand who form an intense erotic friendship based on a fantasy world they create, and how their forced separation leads them to commit matricide. Beneath the sensational surface, though, is another story: this is a film about cinema, about desire, and how queer spectators create new and unexpected meanings. This articl...