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Editor's Note, 114.
31 March 2020
Welcome to ViewFinder Issue 114: Decolonising Tackling a subject as big as ‘decolonising’ was always going to prove a tough task, but with added Covid-19 mayhem it’s been a bit trickier. This term’s issue is ever so slightly reduced (in terms of amount of content) and ever so slightly late (in terms of when it… continue reading.
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Critical paralysis: confronting colonialism in photography education
31 March 2020
I have taught ‘history and theory’ to photojournalism and documentary photography students at a central London art and design university for the past ten years. In this setting, I’ve become increasingly aware that as a subject area, photography has a unique level of responsibility to engage with the current sector-wide decolonizing agenda that has finally… continue reading.
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Columbus on a spaceship, or: Decolonising the Anthropocene
31 March 2020
What does global warming have to do with colonialism? The answer is unequivocal: everything. Our efforts for the climate must therefore be decolonial if they are to succeed. After all, taking global warming seriously requires nothing less than changing our colonial relationships with man and nature. Cinema can be at the center of this. Since… continue reading.
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Mining the Film Archive to Reckon with the Colonial Past
26 March 2020
The 2016 Brexit referendum has recast discussions about Britain’s identity, migration, and economic and cultural relationships with former colonies and Commonwealth countries. It has intensified debates about the violent legacies of the British Empire and the absence of Empire and colonial histories from school curricula. Calls for greater historical awareness of Britain’s colonial past and… continue reading.
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Absent African Epics
25 March 2020
This article first appeared in ViewFinder 114 I imagine that the film trailer would play a voice over with the typical deep baritone speaking in abridged sentences, “Based on a true story... A woman... Who answered the call to save the kingdom… Gave up her nobility to lead the people…and become their saint”. This voice… continue reading.
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Mixed Race Cinemas: Multiracial Dynamic in America and France
25 March 2020
While one could perceive Zélie Asava’s monograph as a thorough sociocultural analysis of the mixed race figure in film history, this would minimise the importance of such work beyond critical readings of film. The book successfully argues the potential social change and importance of mixed film cinema as a progressive agent of the politics of… continue reading.
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Reflections on Creating Film Toolkits to Decolonise Academia and the Film Industry
25 March 2020
This article first appeared in ViewFinder 114 The five-year, European Research Council-funded project Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies began in June 2019, and is based at SOAS University of London. As part of this project, we have started developing free, open-access toolkits that present key films and relevant, related readings from areas of… continue reading.
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New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi and K-pop: Fatima Bhutto
25 March 2020
On the surface, February 2020 seemed to be a pivotal moment when headlines heralded the first foreign film to win the Oscars. Parasite, a Korean family drama, unfolding via an intense mix of genres, won Best Picture. When Vulture interviewed the director Bong-Joon Ho asking him what he thought about the Oscars - he responded… continue reading.
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Paint it brown! – Baahubali Live at the Royal Albert Hall
25 March 2020
“As far as I know, this has never been done before,” said composer John Williams, when speaking about the Los Angeles Recording Arts Orchestra performing the complete score live to the first-ever screening of the 20th anniversary edition of the film E. T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). But it had indeed been done before. On… continue reading.
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Being Seen – Inclusivity in Lighting
10 March 2020
Representation in cinema is a subject on which many people are focussing, whether it is the ongoing need for inclusion and for BAME actors and creators to be visible within the industry at every level, or if it is the almost inevitable belated recognition and concern over the lack of inclusion when the awards season… continue reading.