Category: Media Studies

June 12, 2013

Gusher by Steve Coll — The Best Business Writing 2013

Steve Coll’s “Gusher,” published in The Best Business Writing 2013 offers a behind-the-scenes look at the tremendous influence ExxonMobil has in Washington and in shaping environmental and climate policy. In this excerpt, Steve Coll documents some of the early battles...

June 11, 2013

How Companies Learn Your Secrets from The Best Business Writing 2013

“There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subcon­scious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive render­ing of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how...

June 7, 2013

"Dirtied” Star images and Acting Against Type in "Behind the Candelabra" — Andrew deWaard and R. Colin Tait

The following blog post is by Andrew deWaard and R. Colin Tait, authors of The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh: Indie Sex, Corporate Lies, and Digital Videotape. You can also read an interview with the authors. In our book, The Cinema...

June 6, 2013

A Richard Linklater Moment — Rob Stone

The following is a post by Rob Stone, author of The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run. You can also read an interview with Rob Stone discussing the book and Linklater’s films: When the British-Canadian film scholar Robin Wood...

June 5, 2013

Interview with Andrew deWaard and R. Colin Tait, Authors of The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh

“I think that [Soderbergh’s] ‘final films’ from 2009-2013 after he announced his retirement reflect one of the most prolific and creative bursts of filmmaking in recent American cinema.”—R. Colin Tait, coauthor of The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh The following is...

June 4, 2013

Interview with Rob Stone, Author of The Cinema of Richard Linklater

The following is an interview with Rob Stone, author of The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run. Question: What makes the cinema of Richard Linklater a good subject for study? Rob Stone: Linklater is an incredibly versatile filmmaker, not...

June 3, 2013

Double Book Giveaway! The Cinema of Richard Linklater and The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh

Remember the ’90s? I do but if you don’t, there are two new books on two of the decade’s directorial stars who helped to shape and define American independent film. However, these directors are more than just remnants of the...

May 23, 2013

Thomas Doherty Helps to Rediscover a Lost Anti-Nazi Film

A recent post from the New Yorker‘s blog, Culture Desk tells the remarkable story of the rediscovery of the first American Anti-Nazi film. The long-lost film’s location was tracked down by Thomas Doherty, author of the recently published Hollywood and...

May 22, 2013

Shivers Down Your Spine — Interview with Alison Griffiths

We are reposting an interview with Alison Griffiths, author of Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinemas, Museums, and the Immersive View (now available in paper!). Griffiths is associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baruch College, City University of...

May 15, 2013

Poetry: The News that Stays News — Stephen Burt

“So where did this idea come about that poems are the opposite of journalism, that poets do what reporters cannot, and vice versa?”—Stephen Burt The following post by Stephen Burt was originally published on Nieman Reports. In the post Stephen...

May 13, 2013

The Cinema of Stephen Soderbergh

Interested in Stephen Soderbergh? If so, Andrew deWaard and R. Colin Tait, the authors of The Cinema of Stephen Soderbergh, have created a web site devoted to news about the director. Recently they’ve posted on: * Soderbergh’s twitter novella (written...

May 1, 2013

The World According to Béla Tarr — András Bálint Kovács

The Cinema of Béla Tarr: The Circle Closes, by András Bálint Kovács offers a critical assessment of one of Europe’s most important contemporary directors. As Kovács argues, for both his aesthetic achievements but also his remarkable depiction and understanding of...