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Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics June 5, 2023

Elephant Man

A Film by David Lynch

David Lynch

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Listen:
George Orwell said, "By fifty, every man has the face he deserves." To what degree does David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) respond to the idea that our appearances define …

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Interviews with film makers and scholars of film about their new books.

Performing Arts June 5, 2023

Performing the Socialist State

Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture

Xiaomei Chen

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Listen:
Xiaomei Chen's book Performing the Socialist State: Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture (Columbia UP, 2023) looks at three "founding fathers" of Chinese spoken drama: Tian Han, Hong Shen, and Ouyang Yuqian …
Film June 4, 2023

Abbas Kiarostami

Interviews

Monika Raesch

Hosted by Kaveh Rafie
Listen:
The cinephile community knows Abbas Kiarostami (1940–2016) as one of the most important filmmakers of the previous decades. This volume illustrates why the Iranian filmmaker achieved critical acclaim around the …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics May 29, 2023

The Long Good Friday

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Can a two-hour film accomplish what it takes several seasons of a TV show to do? We're talking to you, Sopranos. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about John …
MIT Press Podcast May 25, 2023

Black Film, British Cinema II

Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha

Hosted by MIT Press
Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha discuss their forthcoming book Black Film, British Cinema II (publishing in March with Goldsmiths Press), a book which brings together scholars, thinkers and practitioners to …
Performing Arts May 24, 2023

Why Do Actors Train?

Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers

Brad Krumholz

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Why Do Actors Train?: Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers (Bloomsbury, 2023) powerfully demystifies the actor-training process by focusing on acting as embodied cognition. In this framework, thought is action …
Global Media & Communication May 22, 2023

Made in Censorship

The Tiananmen Movement in Chinese Literature and Film

Thomas Chen

Hosted by Aswin Punathambekar and Jing Wang
Hello, world! This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. In this episode, our host Ignatius Suglo discusses the book Made in Censorship: The Tiananmen Movement in Chinese Literature …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics May 22, 2023

Kiss Me Deadly

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Mike has been badgering Dan for years to reevaluate Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich's now-canonical 1955 noir. Mike always loved it; Dan always thought it was overrated. Does he still …
Film May 17, 2023

The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck

Twenty-Six Short Essays on a Working Star

Catherine Russell

Hosted by Daniel Moran
From The Lady Eve, to The Big Valley, Barbara Stanwyck played parts that showcased her multidimensional talents but also illustrated the limits imposed on women in film and television …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics May 15, 2023

The Killers

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Citizen Kane isn't the only film in which the lead character dies in the beginning and sets an audience in pursuit of what to make of his final moments. Mike …
Critical Theory May 13, 2023

Secret Cinema and the Immersive Experience Industry

Sarah Atkinson and Helen W. Kennedy

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the future of media? In Secret Cinema and the Immersive Experience Industry (Manchester UP, 2022), Sarah Atkinson, a Professor of Screen Media at Kings College London, and Helen …
Film May 12, 2023

The Wrong Kind of Women

Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood

Naomi McDougall Jones

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood (Beacon, 2020) by Naomi McDougall Jones is a brutally honest look at the systemic exclusion of …
Performing Arts May 9, 2023

Actresses and Mental Illness

Histrionic Heroines

Fiona Gregory

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo
Actresses and Mental Illness: Histrionic Heroines (Routledge, 2018) investigates the relationship between the work of the actress and her personal experience of mental illness, from the late nineteenth through to …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics May 8, 2023

Primer

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Mike asks, "Have you ever seen a movie that tackles time travel better than Primer?" The answer is no. Tenet might handle it sexier, Back to the Future might handle …
Film May 2, 2023

Madness at the Movies

Understanding Mental Illness through Film

James Charney

Hosted by Melek Firat Altay
The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies: Understanding Mental Illness through Film (Johns …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics May 1, 2023

Ford v Ferrari

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
What does it mean to be happy? Why do movies have such a hard time dramatizing genuine adult friendships? And why is Mike so adamant against seeing movies like Tetris …
Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics April 24, 2023

Paths of Glory

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics
Everyone loves Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's 1957 film too-often described as "anti-war." Mike and Dan talk about how this incredibly cynical film is more "anti-human" than "anti-war" and get …
Almost Good Catholics April 20, 2023

Catholic Movies, Part 2 (with Jonathan Fessenden)

"The Mission" and "A Man for All Seasons"

Jonathan Fessenden

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Jonathan Fessenden and I talk about two movies, Roland Joffé’s The Mission (1986) and Fred Zinneman’s A Man for All Seasons (1966), both written by Robert Bolt, and both about …
Global Media & Communication April 20, 2023

Dislike-Minded

Media, Audiences, and the Dynamics of Taste

Jonathan Gray

Hosted by Aswin Punathambekar and Jing Wang
In this episode, our host Sim Gill discusses the book Dislike-Minded: Media, Audiences, and the Dynamics of Taste (NYU Press, 2021) by Jonathan Gray. You’ll hear about: A brief history of …
American West April 20, 2023

Speculative Wests

Popular Representations of a Region and Genre

Michael K. Johnson

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The Western as a genre is alive and vibrant, argues University of Maine - Farmington professor of English literature Michael K. Johnson. In Speculative Wests: Popular Representations of a Region and a …