Traditions in World Cinema – serie

The core volume in the Traditions in World Cinema series, this book brings together a colourful and wide-ranging collection of world cinematic traditions - national, regional and global - all of which are in need of introduction, investigation and, in some cases, critical reassessment. Topics include: German expressionism, Italian neorealism, French New Wave, British new wave, Czech new wave, Danish Dogma, post-Communist cinema, Brazilian post-Cinema Novo, new Argentine cinema, pre-revolutionary African traditions, Israeli persecution films, new Iranian cinema, Hindi film songs, Chinese wenyi pian melodrama, Japanese horror, new Hollywood cinema and global found footage cinema.Features*Includes a preface by Toby Miller.*Each chapter covers a key world cinema tradition and is written by an expert in the field: Roy Armes, Nitzan Ben-Shaul, Peter Bondanella, Corey Creekmur, Adrian Danks, Peter Hames, Randal Johnson, Robert Kolker, Myrto Konstantarakos, Jay McRoy, Negar Mottahedeh, Richard Neupert, Christina Stojanova, J.P. Telotte, Stephen Teo.*Traditions are examined from a wide range of views and include historical, social, cultural and industrial perspectives.

A much-needed critical introduction to some of the most important Japanese horror films produced over the last fifty years, Japanese Horror Cinema provides an insightful examination of the tradition’s most significant trends and themes. The book examines the genre’s dominant aesthetic, cultural, political and technological underpinnings, and individual chapters address key topics such as: the debt Japanese horror films owe to various Japanese theatrical and literary traditions; the popular ‘avenging spirit’ motif; the impact of atomic warfare, rapid industrialisation and apocalyptic rhetoric on Japanese visual culture; the extents to which changes in the economic and social climate inform representations of monstrosity and gender; the influence of recent shifts in audience demographics; and the developing relations (and contestations) between Japanese and ‘Western’ (Anglo-American and European) horror film tropes and traditions. Extensive coverage of the central thematic concerns and stylistic traits of Japanese horror cinema makes this volume an indispensable text for a myriad of film and cultural studies courses.Features:* Includes a preface by Christopher Sharrett* Each chapter covers a fundamental aspect of Japanese horror cinema and is written by an expert in the field* Case studies include internationally renowned films such as Nakata Hideo’s Ringu, Ishii Takashi’s Freeze Me and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale* Appendices feature an interview with maverick filmmaker Miike Takashi and a filmography of Japanese horror films currently available in the UK and US.

This book is the first study in English to examine some of the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period. It examines links between theme, genre, and visual style, and looks at the ways in which a range of styles and traditions has extended across different historical periods and political regimes. Czech and Slovak Cinema provides a unique study of areas of Central European film history that have not previously been examined in English. Key Features*An overview of the development of the Czech and Slovak industries in the pre-war and post-war periods and their adaptation to privatisation in the 1990s.*A consideration of some of the key stylistic and thematic tendencies, focussing on comedy and lyricism, which are characteristics of all periods.*An examination of the political role of film, with particular emphasis on the period of the Prague Spring.*The continuing influence of the Surrealist tradition in the feature film and on the living tradition of the animated film, with particular reference to puppetry.*An analysis of representations of the Holocaust in films produced during the Communist period and more recently.*A consideration of the defining characteristics of Slovak cinema.The book will be of value to students within the field of Film and Media Studies as well as the general market, together with specialist chapters of interest to other disciplines.

This book is the first study in English to examine some of the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period. It examines links between theme, genre, and visual style, and looks at the ways in which a range of styles and traditions has extended across different historical periods and political regimes. Czech and Slovak Cinema provides a unique study of areas of Central European film history that have not previously been examined in English. Key Features*An overview of the development of the Czech and Slovak industries in the pre-war and post-war periods and their adaptation to privatisation in the 1990s.*A consideration of some of the key stylistic and thematic tendencies, focussing on comedy and lyricism, which are characteristics of all periods.*An examination of the political role of film, with particular emphasis on the period of the Prague Spring.*The continuing influence of the Surrealist tradition in the feature film and on the living tradition of the animated film, with particular reference to puppetry.*An analysis of representations of the Holocaust in films produced during the Communist period and more recently.*A consideration of the defining characteristics of Slovak cinema.The book will be of value to students within the field of Film and Media Studies as well as the general market, together with specialist chapters of interest to other disciplines.

African Filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara is the first comprehensive study in English linking filmmaking in the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) with that in francophone West Africa and examining the factors (including Islam and the involvement of African and French governments) which have shaped post-independence production. The main focus is the development over forty years of two main traditions of African filmmaking: a social realist strand examining the nature of postcolonial society and a more experimental approach where emphasis is placed on new stylistic patterns able to embrace history, myth and magic. The work of younger filmmakers born since independence is examined in the light of these two traditions.Features: *An overview of the socio-political context shaped by Islam and French colonialism.*A look at filmmaking in Africa before the mid-1960s.*An examination of the inputs of African and French governments into post-independence developments North and South of the Sahara.*A historical survey of the two major tendencies in African film production over the past 40 years.*A detailed analysis of the work of five talented young filmmakers, representative of those born since independence.

This is the first comparative consideration of the musical's role within national cinema traditions. While the musical is one cinema's few genuinely international genres, it has often functioned as an explicitly local or national form, drawing upon distinct traditions understood as 'native' rather than 'international'. Simultaneously, musicals from around the world have often imitated Hollywood models, resulting in their easy dismissal as culturally 'impure' and demonstrating the creative and ideological tension between promoting and abandoning traditional cultural forms and styles. This productive tension between local and global elements lies at the heart of international film musicals, which typically acknowledge the dominant Hollywood model while claiming their own cultural specificity. Key Features* Individual chapters provide succinct historical and critical discussions of musicals from sixteen major national film traditions, along with the transnational musical.* A coda by Rick Altman, one of the genre's most prominent scholars.* Lists of key resources offer teachers as well as students additional information.

How has Italian neorealist cinema changed the boundaries of cinematic narration and representation? In this new study, Torunn Haaland argues that neorealism was a cultural moment based on individual optiques. She accounts for the tradition’s coherence in terms of its moral commitment to creating critical viewing experiences around underrepresented realities and marginalised people. By examining both acclaimed masterpieces and lesser known works, parallels are drawn to realist theories and to past and present cinematic traditions. The ways in which successive generations of directors have readopted, negotiated and broken with the themes and aesthetics of neorealist film are discussed and evaluated, along with neorealist tendencies in other arts, such as literature.An engaging and informative read for students and scholars in Italian Studies, Italian Neorealist Cinema presents a new approach to a key cinematic tradition, and so is essential reading for everyone working in the field of Film Studies.

How has Italian neorealist cinema changed the boundaries of cinematic narration and representation? In this new study, Torunn Haaland argues that neorealism was a cultural moment based on individual optiques. She accounts for the tradition’s coherence in terms of its moral commitment to creating critical viewing experiences around underrepresented realities and marginalised people. By examining both acclaimed masterpieces and lesser known works, parallels are drawn to realist theories and to past and present cinematic traditions. The ways in which successive generations of directors have readopted, negotiated and broken with the themes and aesthetics of neorealist film are discussed and evaluated, along with neorealist tendencies in other arts, such as literature.An engaging and informative read for students and scholars in Italian Studies, Italian Neorealist Cinema presents a new approach to a key cinematic tradition, and so is essential reading for everyone working in the field of Film Studies.

Spanish Horror Film is the first in-depth exploration of the genre in Spain from the 'horror boom' of the late 1960s and early 1970s to the most recent production in the current renaissance of Spanish genre cinema, through a study of its production, circulation, regulation and consumption. The examination of this rich cinematic tradition is firmly located in relation to broader historical and cultural shifts in recent Spanish history and as an important part of the European horror film tradition and the global culture of psychotronia.Key Features*The first critical study on Spanish horror film to be published in English.*An overview of key directors, cycles and representative films as well as of more obscure and neglected horror production.*A detailed analysis of the work of directors such as Jesús Franco, Amando de Ossorio, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, Eloy de la Iglesia, Jaume Balagueró, Nacho Cerdá and Guillermo del Toro's "Spanish" films.*A focus on critical and cult contexts of reception in Spain, Great Britain and USA.

Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Europe explores the interlocking complexities of two liminal concepts: magic realism and East Central Europe. Each is a fascinating hybrid that resonates with dominant currents in contemporary thought on transnationalism, globalisation and regionalism. In this critical and comprehensive survey, Aga Skrodzka moves the current debate over magic realism’s political impact from literary studies to film studies. Her close textual analysis of films by directors such as Jan Švankmajer, Jan Jakub Kolski, Martin Šulík, Ivo Trajkov, Dorota Kędzierzawska, Ildikó Enyedi, Béla Tarr and Emir Kusturica is accompanied by an investigation of the socio-economic and political context in order to both study and popularise an important and unique tradition in world cinema. The directors’ artistic achievements illuminate the connections between a particular aesthetics and the social structure of East Central Europe at a precise moment of contemporary history.Provides the first comprehensive analysis of magic realism in cinemaOffers an examination of the post-socialist cinema as representative of the hybridised space and consciousness of East Central EuropeGives chronological overview of the existing theories of magic realism to the extent in which they apply to globalised visual culturesConsiders the cinema of East Central Europe in the context of transnationalism and postcoloniality

Vito and the Others (1991), Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician (1992) and Libera (1993), the debuts of three young Neapolitan filmmakers, stood out dramatically from the landscape of Italian cinema in the early 1990s. On the back of their critical success, over the next decade and a half, Naples became a thriving centre for film production.In this first study in English of one of the most vital and stimulating currents in contemporary European Cinema, Alex Marlow-Mann provides a detailed, multi-faceted and provocative study of this distinct regional tradition. In tracing the movement's relationship with the popular musical melodramas previously produced in Naples, he reveals how contemporary Neapolitan filmmakers have interrogated, subverted and reconfigured cinematic convention as part of a through-going re-examination of Neapolitan identity.Key features include: analyses of over 45 contemporary Italian films, including Paolo Sorrentino's The Consequences of Love, Mario Martone's L'amore molesto, Antonio Capuano's Pianese Nunzio: 14 in May and Vincenzo Marra's Sailing Home; a theoretical discussion of the concept of regional cinema; an examination of the movement in its broader context as both product and critique of Mayor Bassolino's 'Neapolitan Renaissance'; and a study of one European film industry in terms of legislation, production, distribution and exhibition.

Covering more than forty films made since 2001 – including The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Paper will be Blue, Police, Adjective and Beyond the Hills – this pioneering collection of essays on New Romanian Cinema is the first to contextualise it aesthetically, theoretically and historically. Scholars from across Europe and North America are brought together, reflecting on the realism, minimalism and intermedial artifice of New Romanian cinemas, on its approaches to issues of national and gender identity, and on its unique convergence of ethics and aesthetics. With its thorough bibliographic and filmographic references, and a comprehensive historical overview, the anthology represents a systematic guide to New Romanian Cinema as a consolidated cinematic movement, and highlights its potential as a rich interdisciplinary field of study.

Several Latin American films ('Amores Perros', 'Y Tu Mama Tambien', 'Cidade de Deus', 'Central do Brasil', 'Nueve Reinas', 'El Hijo de la Novia') enjoyed an unprecedented level of critical and commercial success in the world film market. These films were considered transnational as they benefited from substantial external capital or creative. Followed in the 2000s by a series of equally critical and/or commercially successful 'deterritorialised' films by some of the same directors, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles the incipient transnationalism of the first films and the directors' position in international cinema was confirmed. This book incorporates the Latin America/Hollywood and Indiewood vector of filmmaking into its study of the region's transnationalised filmmaking. It argues that although undoubtedly 'commercial', films produced either within, or under the structures of Hollywood are not necessarily apolitical nor totally divorced from key notions of national or continental identity. Tierney shows that it is the auteurist nature of many of these deterritorialised transnational films which plays a key role in their ability to engage with issues of national and continental identity and to forge a transnational tradition beyond the geospatial limits of the region. To support its arguments about the transnational trend, the book uses textual analysis and industrial case studies looking both at the five directors who have most publically interacted and, in their own ways influenced, the trend as well as those of other filmmakers who are also involved in it.

Vito and the Others (1991), Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician (1992) and Libera (1993), the debuts of three young Neapolitan filmmakers, stood out dramatically from the landscape of Italian cinema in the early 1990s. On the back of their critical success, over the next decade and a half, Naples became a thriving centre for film production.In this first study in English of one of the most vital and stimulating currents in contemporary European Cinema, Alex Marlow-Mann provides a detailed, multi-faceted and provocative study of this distinct regional tradition. In tracing the movement's relationship with the popular musical melodramas previously produced in Naples, he reveals how contemporary Neapolitan filmmakers have interrogated, subverted and reconfigured cinematic convention as part of a through-going re-examination of Neapolitan identity.Key features include: analyses of over 45 contemporary Italian films, including Paolo Sorrentino's The Consequences of Love, Mario Martone's L'amore molesto, Antonio Capuano's Pianese Nunzio: 14 in May and Vincenzo Marra's Sailing Home; a theoretical discussion of the concept of regional cinema; an examination of the movement in its broader context as both product and critique of Mayor Bassolino's 'Neapolitan Renaissance'; and a study of one European film industry in terms of legislation, production, distribution and exhibition.

American Smart Cinema examines a contemporary type of US filmmaking that exists at the intersection of mainstream, art and independent cinema and often gives rise to absurd, darkly comic and nihilistic effects.Connecting the 'smart' sensibility to issues of expressive irony, generational divide and therapeutic culture, this bold new book describes a recent critical tradition in commercial-independent American filmmaking by exploring the unstable tone and dysfunctional themes of such films as The Royal Tenenbaums, Adaptation, The Squid and the Whale, Palindromes, The Last Days of Disco, Flirt, Ghost World, Your Friends and Neighbors, Donnie Darko and The Savages. Acknowledging the loaded forms of expression employed by these films, American Smart Cinema provides new directions for their study by discussing the self-conscious approach taken to film historical discourses of authorship, narrative and genre. Examining the smart film's taste for 'blank' style and issues of middle-class identity, the book provides a comprehensive account of smart cinema as an aesthetic category while also considering the cultural and political factors that have guaranteed it critical and popular success.

In the Taiwanese film industry, the dichotomy between ‘art-house’ and commercially viable films is heavily emphasized. However, since the democratization of the political landscape in Taiwan, Taiwanese cinema has become internationally fluid. As the case studies in this book demonstrate, filmmakers such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, and Ang Lee each engage with international audience expectations. New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus therefore presents the Taiwanese New Wave and Second Wave movements with an emphasis on intertextuality, citation and trans-cultural dialogue. Wilson argues that the cinema of Taiwan since the 1980s should be read emblematically; that is, as a representation of the greater paradox that exists in national and transnational cinema studies. She argues that these unlikely relationships create the need for a new way of thinking about ‘transnationalism’ altogether, making this an essential read for advanced students and scholars in both Film Studies and Asian Studies.

This book looks at some of the key genres in Japanese cinema since 1997. In several cases it considers in detail the ways in which individual films have both drawn and departed from those films that have comprised the key works and trends in these generic categories, and in others it looks at some significant recent developments that have little real precedence in filmmaking in Japan. Through close textual analysis of representative films, the study seeks to elucidate the prevalence of repetition and variation in contemporary Japanese genre cinema, to understand some of the reasons behind this paradigm, and analyze where relevant how and to what extent new modes or generic groups fit into the schema. In so doing it seeks for the first time in English language discourse to offer an academic appreciation and overview of popular Japanese of the last two decades.

Unlike countries like France, the Czech Republic or Brazil, Italy did not have a new wave properly understood as a movement. However, while new artistic schools were emerging in many other countries, Italy was undergoing its most dramatic social and economic transformations. Those violent changes, together with the perceived necessity of renewing the aesthetic heritage of Neorealism, sparked a drastic regeneration of the cinematic language and marked the most memorable period of Italian film history.Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema explores the ferments of Italian cinema from the mid-50s to the end of the 60s, situating its wealth in the context of other national cinemas emerging at the same time. Olmi, Pasolini, Antonioni, Fellini, Visconti, the Taviani Brothers, Cavani, Rosi, Ferreri and many others all made their debut or directed their most representative works during the period. The book brings to the surface the lines of experimentation and artistic renewal appearing after the exhaustion of Neorealism, mapping complex areas of interest such as the emergence of ethical concerns, the relationship between ideology and representation, and the role of Italian counter-culture.

Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Europe explores the interlocking complexities of two liminal concepts: magic realism and East Central Europe. Each is a fascinating hybrid that resonates with dominant currents in contemporary thought on transnationalism, globalisation and regionalism. In this critical and comprehensive survey, Aga Skrodzka moves the current debate over magic realism’s political impact from literary studies to film studies. Her close textual analysis of films by directors such as Jan Švankmajer, Jan Jakub Kolski, Martin Šulík, Ivo Trajkov, Dorota Kędzierzawska, Ildikó Enyedi, Béla Tarr and Emir Kusturica is accompanied by an investigation of the socio-economic and political context in order to both study and popularise an important and unique tradition in world cinema. The directors’ artistic achievements illuminate the connections between a particular aesthetics and the social structure of East Central Europe at a precise moment of contemporary history.Provides the first comprehensive analysis of magic realism in cinemaOffers an examination of the post-socialist cinema as representative of the hybridised space and consciousness of East Central EuropeGives chronological overview of the existing theories of magic realism to the extent in which they apply to globalised visual culturesConsiders the cinema of East Central Europe in the context of transnationalism and postcoloniality

Following World War II, film noir became the dominant cinematic expression of Cold War angst, influencing new trends in European and Asian filmmaking. International Noir examines film noir’s influence on the cinematic traditions of Britain, France, Scandinavia, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and India. This book suggests that the film noir style continues to appeal on such a global scale because no other cinematic form has merged style and genre to effect a vision of the disturbing consequences of modernity. International noir has, however, adapted and adopted noir themes and aesthetic elements so that national cinemas can boast an independent and indigenous expression of the genre. Ranging from Japanese silent films and women’s films to French, Hong Kong, and Nordic New Waves, this book also calls into question critical assessments of noir in international cinemas. In short, it challenges prevailing film scholarship to renegotiate the concept of noir. Ending with an examination of Hollywood’s neo-noir recontextualization of the genre, and post-noir’s reinvigorating critique of this aesthetic, International Noir offers Film Studies scholars an in-depth commentary on this influential global cinematic art form, further offering extensive bibliography and filmographies for recommended reading and viewing.

Offers an important insight into the formative moments of transnational film culture in AustraliaProvides vibrant textual studies of under-evaluated Australian international picturesDevelops an understanding of international film production in the years following WWII and before the Australian film revival of the 1970sCorrects the perception that there was no significant feature film production in Australia after the 1930s and before the revivalOffers background and important precedents for the more recent practices of global co-productions and 'Hollywood Down-under'Australian International Pictures examines the concept and definition of Australian film in relation to a range of local, international and global practices and trends that blur neat categorisations of national cinema. Although international co-production is particularly acute in the present day, this book examines the porous nature of Australian International filmmaking, and the intriguing transnational and cross-cultural formations created by globally targeted but locally focussed films made in Australia in the period 1946 75.Case Studies:The Overlanders (1946) and Ealing Down UnderKangaroo (1952)On the Beach (1959)The Sundowners (1960)The Drifting Avenger (1968)Age of Consent (1969)Color Me Dead (1970)Ned Kelly (1970)Walkabout (1971)Wake in Fright (1971)The Man from Hong Kong (1975)

Nordic Genre Film offers a transnational approach to studying contemporary genre production in Nordic cinema. It discusses a range of internationally renowned examples, from Nordic noir such as the television show The Bridge and films like Insomnia to high concept ‘video generation’ productions such as Iron Sky. Other contributions focus on road movies, the horror film, autobiographical films, historical epics and pornography. These are contextualized by discussion of their position in their respective national film and media histories as well as their influence on other Nordic countries and beyond. By highlighting similarities and differences between the countries, the book combines industrial perspectives and in depth discussion of specific films, while also offering historical perspectives on each genre as comes to production, distribution and reception of popular contemporary genre film.

A comprehensive study of films made in and about one of the world's most breathtaking landscapes – the ArcticThe first book to address the vast diversity of Northern circumpolar cinemas from a transnational perspective, Films on Ice: Cinemas of the Arctic presents the region as one of great and previously overlooked cinematic diversity. With chapters on polar explorer films, silent cinema, documentaries, ethnographic and indigenous film, gender and ecology, as well as Hollywood and the USSR’s uses and abuses of the Arctic, this book provides a groundbreaking account of Arctic cinemas from 1898 to the present. Challenging dominant notions of the region in popular and political culture, it demonstrates how moving images (cinema, television, video, and digital media) have been central to the very definition of the Arctic since the end of the nineteenth century. Bringing together an international array of European, Russian, Nordic, and North American scholars, Films on Ice radically alters stereotypical views of the Arctic region, and therefore of film history itself.

In the context of a frantic world that celebrates instantaneity and speed, a number of cinemas steeped in contemplation, silence and duration have garnered significant critical attention in recent years, thus resonating with a larger sociocultural movement whose aim is to rescue extended temporal structures from the accelerated tempo of late-capitalism. Although not part of a structured film movement, directors such as Carlos Reygadas, Tsai Ming-liang, Béla Tarr, Pedro Costa and Kelly Reichardt have been largely subsumed under the term ‘slow cinema’. But what exactly is slow cinema? Is it a strictly recent phenomenon or an overarching cinematic tradition? And how exactly do slow cinemas interrelate on an aesthetic, technical and political level?Deploying the concept of slowness as an umbrella category under which filmmakers and traditions from different historical and geographical backgrounds can fruitfully converge, this innovative collection of essays interrogates and expands the frameworks that have generally informed slow cinema debates. Repositioning the term in a broader theoretical space, the book combines an array of fine-grained studies that will provide valuable insight into the notion of slowness in the cinema, while mapping out past and contemporary slow films across the globe.

Since the early 1980s and the arrival of Beur cinema filmmakers of Maghrebi origin have made a key contribution French cinema's representation of issues such as immigration, integration and national identity. However, they have done so mostly from a position on the margins of the industry. In contrast, since the early 2000s, Maghrebi-French and North African émigré filmmakers have occupied an increasingly prominent position on both sides of the camera, announcing their presence on French screens in a wider range of genres and styles than ever before. This greater visibility and move to the mainstream has not, however, automatically meant that these films have lost any of the social or political relevance. Indeed in the 2000s many of these films have increasingly questioned the boundaries between national, transnational and diasporic cinema, whilst simultaneously demanding, either implicitly or explicitly, a reconsideration of the very difference that has traditionally been seen as a barrier to the successful integration of North African immigrants and their descendants into French society.Through a detailed study of this transformative decade for Maghrebi-French and North African émigré filmmaking in France, this book argues for the emergence of a 'Post-Beur' cinema in the 2000s that is simultaneously global and local in its outlook. Its key features include:A comprehensive overview of the key developments in Maghrebi-French and North African émigré filmmaking in France since the 2000s: counter-heritage cinema and the memorialisation of France’s colonial past; journey narratives and the myth of return; the ‘mainstreaming’ of Maghrebi-French directors and stars; representations of Islam. Detailed case studies of key films from the 2000s that have yet to receive scholarly attention, such as Hors-la-loi, Dernier maquis and Vénus noire. An in-depth analysis of trends in production, distribution and exhibition as they relate to Maghrebi-French and North African émigré filmmakers in the 2000s.An absorbing introduction to this recent cinematic tradition, Post-Beur Cinema is essential reading for students and scholars in Film Studies, French Studies and Diaspora Studies.

Over the past two decades road cinema has become an increasingly popular form of expression for European directors. Focusing on a corpus of films from France, Belgium and Switzerland, including works by Ismaël Ferroukhi, Bouli Lanners, Aki Kaurismäki and Jacqueline Audry amongst many others, French-language Road Cinema contends that nowhere is the impulse to remap the spaces and identities of ‘New Europe’ more evident than in French-language cinema. Drawing on mobility studies, cultural geography and film theory, this innovative work sketches out the flexible yet distinctive parameters of contemporary French-language road cinema, and argues for an understanding of the ‘road movie’ not as a genre but as a thematic and formal template that crosses cinematic categories to bring together a wide array of films that narrate the movements of migrants, tourists and business executives.

Over the last three decades, Russian filmmakers and audiences have engaged with documentary cinema with an intensity unseen since the 1920s, when Soviet documentarians helped pioneer the mode. What started as a trickle of artistically minded films in the 1990s, expanded in the 2000s to include a broad range of works, chief among them films seeking to re-evaluate the country's past and take stock of its present. This efflorescence went hand in hand with the creation of new institutions film schools, festivals, and online platforms. The rise of YouTube, in particular, helped propel documentary into the cultural mainstream. Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the Kremlin's subsequent crackdown on independent media put an end to all this. The New Russian Documentary thus seeks to introduce readers to the key figures, institutions, and practices involved in this vibrant, if ultimately doomed, oppositionary movement.

Over the last three decades, Russian filmmakers and audiences have engaged with documentary cinema with an intensity unseen since the 1920s, when Soviet documentarians helped pioneer the mode. What started as a trickle of artistically minded films in the 1990s, expanded in the 2000s to include a broad range of works, chief among them films seeking to re-evaluate the country’s past and take stock of its present. This efflorescence went hand in hand with the creation of new institutions—film schools, festivals, and online platforms. The rise of YouTube, in particular, helped propel documentary into the cultural mainstream. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the Kremlin’s subsequent crackdown on independent media put an end to all this. The New Russian Documentary thus seeks to introduce readers to the key figures, institutions, and practices involved in this vibrant, if ultimately doomed, oppositionary movement.