Cinemas in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe After 1989

Catherine Portuges is Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Curator of the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She is the author of Screen Memories: The Hungarian Cinema of MÁrta MÉszÁros. Peter Hames is Visiting Professor in Film Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Technology at Staffordshire University and a program adviser to the London Film Festival. He is the author of Czech and Slovak Cinema: Theme and Tradition and The Czechoslovak New Wave and editor of The Cinema of Central Europe and The Cinema of Jan Švankmajer: Dark Alchemy.

"[A]n excellent collection of essays dealing with contemporary films of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the former East Germany, Romania, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Most of the films discussed are relatively unknown in the West, which is what makes the book so important; the book is also an excellent one-stop source for courses on recent eastern European cinema... [T]his book would be of immeasurable value to anyone working in the areas of eastern European cinema, the globalization of the international cinema marketplace, and the problems and promises arising from the privatization of national cinemas. Summing Up: Highly recommended."--Choice, August 2013 "This collection provides a much-needed comparative overview of recent developments in national cinemas in Central and Eastern Europe... [The] volume, which features some of the most notable scholars working on the cinemas of the region, strikes an effective balance between analyzing recent trends within the respective film industries and discussing film-makers and films. It usefully highlights important film-makers who may have otherwise slipped below the radar of the international film scene...[A]n excellent volume. It will prove an indispensable reference for anyone studying the cinemas of the region."--Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television "This collection provides a much-needed comparative overview of recent developments in national cinemas in Central and Eastern Europe... [The] volume, which features some of the most notable scholars working on the cinemas of the region, strikes an effective balance between analyzing recent trends within the respective film industries and discussing film-makers and films. It usefully highlights important film-makers who may have otherwise slipped below the radar of the international film scene...[A]n excellent volume. It will prove an indispensable reference for anyone studying the cinemas of the region." - Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television

• Catherine Portuges and Peter Hames, 'Introduction: Cinemas in Transition: East-Central Europe after 1989'; Dina Iordanova, 'Bulgarian Cinema: Optimism in Moderation'; Peter Hames, 'The Czech and Slovak Republics: The Velvet Revolution and After'; Barton Byg, 'Is There Still an East German Cinema?; Catherine Portuges, 'Memory and Re-invention in Post-socialist Hungarian Cinema'; Ewa Mazierska, 'Searching for Survival and Meaning: Polish Film Industry and Art after 1989'; Bogdan Stefanescu and Alexandra Foamente, 'Narratives of the Emerging Self Romania's First Years of Post-Totalitarian Cinema'; Bohdan Y. Nebesio, 'The First Five Years with no Plan: Building National Cinema in Ukraine, 1992-1997'; Andrew Horton, 'Cinema Haunts My Memory: Filmmaking in the Former Yugoslavia'