From a near standing start in the 1970s, the emergence and expansion of an aesthetically and culturally distinctive Scottish cinema proved to be one of the most significant developments within late-twentieth and early twenty-first-century British film culture. Individual Scottish films and filmmakers have attracted notable amounts of critical attention as a result. The New Scottish Cinema, however, is the first book to trace Scottish film culture's industrial, creative and critical evolution in comprehensive detail across a forty-year period. On the one hand, it invites readers to reconsider the known - films such as Shallow Grave, Ratcatcher, The Magdalene Sisters, Young Adam, Red Road and The Last King of Scotland. On the other, it uncovers the overlooked, from the 1980s comedic film makers who followed in the footsteps of Bill Forsyth to the variety of present-day Scottish film making - a body of work that encompasses explorations of multiculturalism, exploitation of the macabre and much else in between.In addition to analysing an eclectic range of films and filmmakers, The New Scottish Cinema also examines the diverse industrial, institutional and cultural contexts which have allowed Scottish film to evolve and grow since the 1970s, and relates these to the images of Scotland which artists have put on screen. In so doing, the book narrates a story of interest to any student of contemporary British film.

Scotland, its people and its history have long been a source of considerable fascination and inspiration for filmmakers, film scholars and film audiences worldwide. A significant number of critically acclaimed films made in the last twenty-five years have ignited passionate conversations and debates about Scottish national cinema. Its historical, industrial and cultural complexities and contradictions have made it all the more a focus of attention and interest for both popular audiences and scholarly critics. Directory of World Cinema: Scotland provides an introduction to many of Scottish cinema’s most important and influential themes and issues, films and filmmakers, while adding to the ongoing discussion concerning how to make sense of Scotland’s cinematic traditions and contributions. Chapters on filmmakers range from Murray Grigor to Ken Loach, and Gaelic filmmaking, radical and engaged cinema, production, finance and documentary are just a few of the topics explored. Film reviews range from popular box office hits such as Braveheart, and Trainspotting to lesser known but equally engaging independent and lower budget productions, such as Shell and Orphans. This book is both a stimulating and accessible resource for a wide range of readers interested in Scottish film.

Cinema from Scotland has attained an unprecedented international profile in the decade or so since Shallow Grave (1995) and Trainspotting (1996) impinged on the consciousness of audiences and critics around the world. Scottish Cinema Now is the first collection of essays to examine in depth the new films and filmmakers that have emerged from Scotland over the last ten years. With contributions from both established names and new voices in British Cinema Studies, the volume combines detailed textual analysis with discussion of industrial issues, scholarship on new movies with historical investigation of unjustly forgotten figures and film from Scotland’s cinematic past, and a focus on international as well as indigenous images of Scottishness. Responding to the ways in recent Scottish filmmaking has transformed the country’s cinematic landscape, Scottish Cinema Now reexamines established critical agendas and sets new ones for the study of Scotland’s relationship with the moving image in the twenty-first century.

Over the last three decades, Scottish cinema has seen an unprecedented number of international successes. Films ranging from Local Hero to The Last King of Scotland have not only raised the profile of film-making north of Hadrian’s Wall, but have also raised a number of questions about the place of cinema originating from a small, historically marginalised, as yet stateless nation, within national and transnational film cultures. By providing detailed case studies of some of the biggest films of contemporary Scottish cinema, including Local Hero, Mrs. Brown, Morvern Callar and others, this volume will help readers to understand the key works of the period as well as the industrial, critical and cultural contexts surrounding their creation and reception. As the field of Scottish film studies has also grown and developed during this period, this volume will also introduce readers to the debates sparked by the key works discussed in the book.

Cinema and Nation considers the ways in which film production and reception are shaped by ideas of national belonging and examines the implications of globalisation for the concept of national cinema.

Coined in the early 1990s to describe a burgeoning film movement, 'New Queer Cinema' has turned the attention of film theorists, students and audiences to the proliferation of intelligent, stylish and daring work by lesbian and gay filmmakers within independent cinema, and to the proliferation of 'queer' images and themes within the mainstream. But what constituted New Queer Cinema then and now? And was it political gains, cultural momentum or market forces that determined its evolution? New Queer Cinema is divided into sections on the definition, the filmmakers, the geography, and the spectator of New Queer Cinema. Chapters address the pivotal directors (e.g. Todd Haynes and Gregg Araki) and the salient films (e.g. Paris is Burning and Boys Don't Cry) but also non-mainstream and non-Anglo-American work (e.g. experimental film and third cinema). With a critical eye to its uneasy relationship to the mainstream, the volume explores the aesthetic, socio-cultural, political and, necessarily, commercial investments of New Queer Cinema. This book, the first full-length study of the subject, offers the definitive guide to New Queer Cinema combining indispensable discussions of its central issues with exciting new work by key writers. Features*Provides a definitive introduction to New Queer Cinema (NQC)*Clear structure with each section addressing a key topic in the study of NQC*Themes covered include genre, gender and race, politics, media, and the relationship between NQC and the mainstream.

A stimulating overview of the intellectual arguments and critical debates involved in the study of British and Irish cinemas British and Irish film studies have expanded in scope and depth in recent years, prompting a growing number of critical debates on how these cinemas are analysed, contextualized, and understood. A Companion to British and Irish Cinema addresses arguments surrounding film historiography, methods of textual analysis, critical judgments, and the social and economic contexts that are central to the study of these cinemas. Twenty-nine essays from many of the most prominent writers in the field examine how British and Irish cinema have been discussed, the concepts and methods used to interpret and understand British and Irish films, and the defining issues and debates at the heart of British and Irish cinema studies. Offering a broad scope of commentary, the Companion explores historical, cultural and aesthetic questions that encompass over a century of British and Irish film studies—from the early years of the silent era to the present-day. Divided into five sections, the Companion discusses the social and cultural forces shaping British and Irish cinema during different periods, the contexts in which films are produced, distributed and exhibited, the genres and styles that have been adopted by British and Irish films, issues of representation and identity, and debates on concepts of national cinema at a time when ideas of what constitutes both ‘British’ and ‘Irish’ cinema are under question. A Companion to British and Irish Cinema is a valuable and timely resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of film, media, and cultural studies, and for those seeking contemporary commentary on the cinemas of Britain and Ireland.