This book reviews the development and performance of the global film industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and examines new trends in film production, distribution and consumption through a global lens. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the global film industry since the beginning of 2020. There has been significant transformation in terms of film production, distribution and consumption. Hollywood, like many national cinemas across the globe, has suffered the most significant impact at all levels: the interruption of new film productions, shutdowns of movie theatres in many countries and delays in the release of new films, among them. Many movies made for cinemas were forced to move from release in theatres to various streaming platforms, and nontraditional production companies continued to grow their market share. This book places the global film industry in a post-Pandemic context. It provides detailed analyses of specific systems of film production, distribution and consumption in national cinemas, as well as in Hollywood, while also engaging with the key theoretical and methodological questions from the film studies literature. This volume is a critical reference for students and scholars of film studies and general readers who are interested in the new trends and transformation of the global film industry in a post-pandemic era. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This fifth edition of Film, Form, and Culture offers a lively introduction to both the formal and cultural aspects of film. With extensive analysis of films past and present, this textbook explores how films are constructed from part to whole: from the smallest unit of the shot to the way shots are edited together to create narrative. Robert P. Kolker and Marsha Gordon demystify the technical aspects of filmmaking and demonstrate how fiction and nonfiction films engage with culture. Over 265 images provide a visual index to the films and issues being discussed. This new edition includes: an expanded examination of digital filmmaking and distribution in the age of streaming; attention to superhero films throughout; a significantly longer chapter on global cinema with new or enlarged sections on a variety of national cinemas (including cinema from Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, South Korea, Japan, India, Belgium, and Iran); new or expanded discussions of directors, including Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber, Oscar Micheaux, Agnès Varda, Spike Lee, Julie Dash, Jafar Panahi, Ava DuVernay, Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Penny Lane; and new, in-depth explorations of films, including Within Our Gates (1919), Black Girl (1966), Creed (2015), Moonlight (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Get Out (2017), Black Panther (2018), Parasite (2019), Da 5 Bloods (2020), The French Dispatch (2021), The Power of the Dog (2021), RRR (2022), and Tár (2022). This textbook is an invaluable and exciting resource for students beginning film studies at undergraduate level. Additional resources for students and teachers can be found on the eResource, which includes case studies, discussion questions, and links to useful websites.

Through discourse analysis and a historical comparison of “Pernicious-Vestiges” narratives in the news text of People’s Daily, this book is devoted to revealing primary metaphors of “Pernicious-Vestiges” and political functions in China. “Pernicious-Vestiges” (Yí Dú 遗毒) is one of the most frequently used words in contemporary Chinese historical narration, as well as a constantly changing rhetorical direction in New China’s media discourse, whose function is to remold memory. Over the past 76 years, the “Pernicious-Vestiges” narrative continuously constructed by People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, have reflected the views of China’s political elite and represented the ruling party’s evaluation and reevaluation of historical events. The findings of this book challenge the myth that memory is naturally superior to forgetting, reflect on the ethics of memory in “Pernicious-Vestiges” narratives and the erasure of their own justice, and suggest that the critical space compressed by “Pernicious-Vestiges” narratives should be returned to restore the order of memory and historical reflection. This book will be an excellent read for students and scholars of Chinese studies, media studies, and those who are interested in political communication and collective memory in general.

Balancing leading scholars with emerging trendsetters, this Companion offers fresh perspectives on Asian cinemas and charts new constellations in the field with significance far beyond Asian cinema studies. Asian cinema studies – at the intersection of film/media studies and area studies – has rapidly transformed under the impact of globalization, compounded by the resurgence of a variety of nationalist discourses as well as counter-discourses, new socio-political movements, and the possibilities afforded by digital media. Differentiated experiences of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have further heightened interest in the digital everyday and the renewed geopolitical divide between East and West, and between North and South. Thematized into six sections, the 46 chapters in this anthology address established paradigms of scholarship and viewership in Asian cinemas like extreme genres, cinephilia, festivals, and national cinema, while also highlighting political and archival concerns that firmly situate Asian cinemas within local and translocal milieus. Underrepresented cinemas of North Korea, Bangladesh, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Cambodia, appear here amidst a broader cross-regional, comparative approach. An ideal resource for film, media, cultural and Asian studies researchers, students, and scholars, as well as informed readers with an interest in Asian cinemas.

As the first volume of a two-volume set that examines the interaction between social transformation and visual culture in contemporary China, this book explores the visual construction of popular culture, avant-garde art, and grassroots media culture. Drawing on an approach of Marxist historic materialism and academic resources of sociology, communication, and art, this study of contemporary China’s visual culture emphasizes two inter-related aspects – the visual construction of society and the social construction of the visual. It seeks to unravel how visual culture is produced and constructed, as well as how it reflects the profound social transformation and reshapes people’s understanding and experience of modernization. In this volume, the contributors revisit popular culture, avant-garde art, and grassroots media culture in contemporary China, analyzing the visual image and representation, and visual culture’s role in social construction. In doing so, the book also reveals the cultural tension of contemporary China, in which the visual aspect figures prominently. This book will serve as an essential read for scholars and students of China studies and cultural studies, as well as all levels of readers interested in visual culture in contemporary China.

As the second volume of a two-volume set on new media users in China, this book approaches the subject from a micro level. examining the mediatized existence and life of new media users in the digital age and the approaching age of artificial intelligence. To further explore the interaction between people and new media, this volume focuses on the idea of the "mediatized survival" of new media users. By analyzing user behaviour and practice in mediatized time and space, including selfies, photo retouching, memes, online videos, social media posts, video conferences, and WeChat red packets, the author elucidates the mediatized self-expression embodied in these key phenomena and shows how reality and virtual life converge and interact. The final two chapters discuss drivers of new forms of mediatization surrounding data and cyborgs, exploring the impact of algorithms on people and the outlook for human-machine relationships. This title will be a must-read for scholars, students and media professionals interested in the topics of internet communication, new media usage and media and society as a whole.

As the first volume of a two-volume set on new media users in China, this book approaches the subject from a macro level by regarding users as constructive nodes within networks, thereby giving insights into the interaction between users and new media and among individuals within the ambit of new media. The author revisits the roles of the typical new media user that has changed from that of a passive "audience member" to a basic unit of the network itself, acting as both a node in the communication network, social network, and service network and also a link between the three. In viewing users as nodes functioning in communication networks and social networks, this volume unravels the new landscapes of communication of the new media era and the consequent profound changes in social relationships, interpersonal connection modes and different methods of interaction. In terms of their role in service networks resting upon the network economy, new media users not only are consumers with personalized needs, but also serve as service guides, resource contributors, and even major productive forces. This title will be a must-read for scholars, students and media professionals interested in the topics of internet communication, new media usage, and media and society as a whole.