The decolonial empathy of two Maya documentaries shown at the XIII CLACPI film festival : FicMayab

In this article, I analyze two short documentaries Kat at Kat’ex? (2017) and Sepur Zarco: la vida después de la sentencia (2018), both directed by the Maya-K’iche-Kaqchikel media maker from Guatemala, Eduardo Say, and shown at the XIII CLACPI Film Festival-FicMayab’. Both movies feature Mayan witnesses to and survivors of the violence of the civil war in Guatemala. They share their stories of loss and pain with the diverse audiences convened by the festival. I argue that these movies, in referring to the past, constitute platforms in which these witnesses enact forms of reproduction of life through embodied social practices and acts of care that, in turn, portray them as agents of the reconstitution of their own present. I contend that these movies extend an invitation to the Western(ized) viewer to relate to the Maya testimonios of pain and realities, both within the films’ frame and outside of it. I use the term “decolonial empathy” to refer to this invitation that considers the Maya peoples’ self-determination in the face of state violence and its legacies.peer-reviewe

Film education project with youth

There is a broad consensus on the recognition of cinema as a means of acquiring media literacy. The problematization of cinema as an artistic expression and the promotion of interdisciplinarity between the areas of communication, cinema and education and artistic education in particular that have been established in the field of communication science teaching. In this context, the purpose of this article is to describe action-research projects that are repeated annually, when students are confronted with cinema, audiovisual language, analysis of still and moving images, the follow-up of documentary creation with students from different courses, and their involvement in the dynamization of an audiovisual space from the text of a Portuguese writer, Almada Negreiros "Manifesto Anti Dantas" or interviews in rural communities, using video cameras, within the International Project Rural 3.0 Service-Learning for Rural Development, which is an international transversal project, funded in July 2018 by E+ Knowledge Alliances, coordinated by the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, involving sixteen partners from eight European countries.Erasmus + Programme of the European Union, under the development of the project entitled “3.0- Service Learning for the Rural Development” | Promotor: Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Casteloinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In the Battle for Reality: Social Documentaries in the U.S.

Provides an overview of documentaries that address social justice and democracy issues, and includes case studies of successful strategic uses of social documentaries

Techniques application on cultural and artistic documentary production: a study of Simon Schama’s Power of the Art

The study objects of this research is Simon Schama’s Power of the Art, a documentary with 8 sets and of length 430 minutes. This research explores the documentary through content analysis. The study analyzes artistic expressions like theme, audio-visual language, montage technique, space-time structure, and so on. The purpose is to study how BBC creators reappear and restore history and explain artistic work through video language. How they use artistic and aesthetic expressions with ideological implications in showing and leading the viewers to think. This excellent documentary owns great reference which is significant for future creation of documentaries of similar state

Exploring approaches to the generation and representation of heritage artefacts in video game contexts

© 2016, © 2016 University of Wollongong. Video games can allow players to explore environments, which are representative of, or contain elements of physical world cultures, for example, allowing a player to explore ancient Egypt in Pharaoh (Impressions Games, 1999, Pharaoh [PC Game]. Sierra Entertainment) or present day Chicago in Watchdogs (Ubisoft Montreal, 2014, [PlayStation 4 game] . Guildford), etc. Game designers need to make design decisions regarding how these environments are going to be represented, including which items are going to be utilized, how they are going to be used in the game, and the level of detail to which they are going to be presented. These decisions can lead to concerns regarding how particular cultures are represented. This article describes research undertaken to investigate the design process with respect to the inclusion of physical world cultures in virtual game environments. Within the study approaches used (including processes and methods) by game designers in the stages of conceptualization, design and delivery are explored. In addition, these are contextualized through an understanding of designer attitudes towards the inclusion of items with cultural meaning and their perspectives on the importance of cultural representation within video games. This involved interviewing eight video game designers from global contexts within the industry, all with the experience of generating cultural items for inclusion in video game contexts. These interviews were structured with a focus on exploring views, experiences, beliefs and motivations of the individuals and of their working teams. Analysis was carried out through the use of a methodological process of analytical induction with the coding of particular variables within each interview transcript, and the transformation of the complete set of codings into a set of conceptual statements. This article relates these conceptual statements to earlier work regarding close readings of particular video games and discusses the relationship between design processes (facilitated through the interviews) and realized game worlds (facilitated through the close readings)

Using films in teaching about Africa

This paper begins with a brief critique of didactic approaches to teaching about Africa: Such methods do not benefit students pedagogically; they cast Western academy/academics as guardians of truth about Africa; and they cast students as possible receptacles of objective knowledge of Africa. It suggests that an approach based on 'border pedagogy' offers a helpful alternative, and outlines the advantages of using films from/about Africa to achieve this. A Level 3 undergraduate module which incorporates films is outlined, and eight films used in the module are briefly described. Finally, attention is given to students' reactions to the use of films

Sota, ylisukupolvinen muisti ja dokumenttielokuva : medioitu ja institutionaalinen muisti historiakulttuurissa

This article makes use of history documentary films to examine mediated historical culture and memory narrated by media. It particularly focuses on transgenerational dimensions of memory in media representations – the idea of how collective memories are transmitted through media to a second generation of people who did not directly experience the actual events but who nonetheless have often been exposed to the traumatic tensions of the first generation. The article first asks how mediated memory provides different views on war in historical culture. Second, it discusses how the memory of war is negotiated in the contemporary institutional historical culture of a democracy. The article demonstrates that since the role of the state in public remembrance is no longer as clear-cut as before, at least in democratic countries, historical culture is a more appropriate and precise concept than either civil society or even public history for analysing the importance of memory in society. The article also confirms the notion that it is difficult, if not even impossible, to separate media-narrated memory into the collective and private spheres of life. The empirical body of research consists of three Finnish history documentary films on WWII screened or broadcast in 2017, when Finland celebrated its 100-year anniversary.This article makes use of history documentary films to examine mediated historical culture and memory narrated by media. It particularly focuses on transgenerational dimensions of memory in media representations - the idea of how collective memories are transmitted through media to a second generation of people who did not directly experience the actual events but who nonetheless have often been exposed to the traumatic tensions of the first generation. The article first asks how mediated memory provides different views on war in historical culture. Second, it discusses how the memory of war is negotiated in the contemporary institutional historical culture of a democracy. The article demonstrates that since the role of the state in public remembrance is no longer as clear-cut as before, at least in democratic countries, historical culture is a more appropriate and precise concept than either civil society or even public history for analysing the importance of memory in society. The article also confirms the notion that it is difficult, if not even impossible, to separate media-narrated memory into the collective and private spheres of life. The empirical body of research consists of three Finnish history documentary films on WWII screened or broadcasted in 2017, when Finland celebrated its 100-year anniversary.Peer reviewe

The Politics of Mexican Documentary Distribution: Three Case Studies, 1988-2006

This dissertation examines the politics involved in the distribution of Mexican documentaries during the 1988-2006 period, as a way to pinpoint the factors shaping the circulation of these films. The research explores inequalities in audiovisual distribution, which have affected the circulation of Mexican documentaries in the domestic market. In my argument, I sustain that these inequalities are the result of complex political and economic tensions within the field of cultural production in a country that has entered an era of neoliberalism and transitional democracy. To narrow the scope of this study to feasible and attainable proportions, I analyze three distribution case studies applying a cultural industries approach within critical political economy, informed by Pierre Bourdieu's field theory and concepts borrowed from cultural studies. The case studies under analysis involved the documentary production and distribution of three production houses. Each of them participates in a different field of cultural production: film, video, or television. These production houses are the film company La Media Luna, the video collective Canal 6 de Julio, and the publishing and video company Clío. By examining these case studies, I highlight what is at stake when some audiovisual texts have greater access to audiences and markets than others. This is important since documentaries have helped to ensure a diversity of voices, both social and political, in the Mexican public sphere. In order to ensure this diversity, it is crucial to understand how Mexican documentaries can gain access to larger Mexican audiences. This is what this dissertation seeks to address