Change is best undertaken with a plainly stated purpose in sight. The new formats that are visible in this issue are meant to enhance Film Quarterly’s appeal to people who think seriously about movies, whether they do so inside or outside the academy.
“Democratic government is the original user-generated content”—a simple, pithy message spoken directly into the camera with clarity and conviction. James Kotecki knows what makes good YouTube; indeed, he has a claim to being the site’s single most astute user when it comes to political communication through online moving-image content.
The Namesake, French war films, Into Great Silence, The Lives of Others, Cleo from 5 to 7, YouTube; democratization v regulation
READ: A Public Place, All That Is Solid Melts Into War, The Online Stump, and The Hungry Cinema of Stephen Dwoskin
Movie Violence in The Passion of the Christ, an interview with Aki Kaurismaki, and the New Verticality of Special Effects. Plus reviews of Cache, Wedding in Galilee, and The Cyclist
READ: a review of Cache
Ideology in Nature Films, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, The First Eco-Disaster Film?, and The Demise of Digital (Print #1). Plus reviews of Two Brothers and 9 Songs
READ: The Battle to Film The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
Dolby Digital, Postsocialist China, The Grand Style, and part 1 or our Annual Film Book Survey. Plus reviews of In the Cut and Hero
READ: a review of Hero