Building Blocks

Back in the pre-deadline ooze, when beautiful abstracts were putting plump flesh on the bare bones of our outline, it often seemed as if The Routledge Companion to World Cinema might actually meet its own remit of uniting contributors from key areas of world cinema studies and re-uniting several of the leading authors of key works that this … Continue reading “Building Blocks”

Flashforward

Telling the full story of how the Remapping World Cinema series and The Routledge Companion to World Cinema came to be means recapping, which has been the narrative of this blog until now. But on this update we’ll flash forward to today and check on how things are coming together. We have forty contributions in various … Continue reading “Flashforward”

Divide and Conquer

Film is globalised, but also regional, defined by socio-political processes that illustrate the interconnectivity between global changes in political and economic power, all-encompassing digital transformations and an arguably worldwide sedimentation of people in terms of their status within an increasingly neo-liberal world order. All this affects changes in regional film policies, creative activities, community ‘uprisings’ … Continue reading “Divide and Conquer”

If You Build It, They Will Come

And come they did. Abstracts for chapters in The Routledge Companion to World Cinema pinged into our inboxes from those we had initially invited. Constructing the volume would take time and a great deal of consultation but for the moment at least we were delighted to receive offers of collaboration from some expert scholars. Indeed, … Continue reading “If You Build It, They Will Come”

The Book Is The Hook But The Rationale Is The Bait

Compiling contributors for an edited book always reminds me of the scenes in The Magnificent Seven where Chris (Yul Brynner) recruits the titular septuplets one by one, raising his fingers to count them off every time he enrols a new one. Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn…I hope Antoine Fuqua’s 2016 remake does the same. … Continue reading “The Book Is The Hook But The Rationale Is The Bait”

Where Does One Start Remapping World Cinema?

We wanted The Routledge Companion to World Cinema to be a touchstone publication for a crucial moment, when the industry, ideas and functions of film are in tremendous flux, not just from the effects of digital technologies and new screen media, but from economic and political changes that prompt us to question the very utility of … Continue reading “Where Does One Start Remapping World Cinema?”

How Did The Remapping World Cinema Project Come About?

Professor Paul Cooke of the University of Leeds and I have been collaborating for many years on research workshops, funding bids, co-written articles and edited books. Our latest project is the co-edited book Screening European Heritage, which will soon be published by Palgrave. With Paul being Centenary Chair in World Cinemas and Head of the Centre … Continue reading “How Did The Remapping World Cinema Project Come About?”

Welcome To The B-Film Blog

B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies is a research centre in the College of Arts at the University of Birmingham. B-Film is working in collaboration with Routledge, the Centre for World Cinemas and Cultures at the University of Leeds, and the Centre for Film and Media Research at the University of Kent on the … Continue reading “Welcome To The B-Film Blog”