Department of Film Studies

Dr Elisabetta Girelli's 'Beauty and the Beast: Italianness in British Cinema' to be released.

Recent years have seen an increased interest in issues of national identity and representation, and cinema is a major medium where strands and layers of representational systems come together in cross-cultural dialogues. 'Beauty and the Beast' provides an account of the specific development of depictions of Italy and the Italians in British cinema. Dr Girelli draws upon cultural and social history to assess the ongoing function of “Italianness” in British film, and its crucial role in defining and challenging British national identity. Drawing on British literary and filmic tradition to analyse the rise of specific images of the Italian Other, this book makes original use of archival material such as WWII footage – and a selected corpus of significant British films.

Dina Iordanova's New Bulgarian Cinema now available.

Dina Iordanova's monograph on New Bulgarian Cinema is now available to order from Blurb.com or from her Web-site, www.DinaView.com. It is available in both hard and soft cover. Please click on the link for further information.

Faculty Update: We welcome new staff

Although we were very sad to say goodbye to our colleague Dr Belén Vidal, we are delighted to announce that Dr Will Brown, whom many know from his post as Teaching Fellow, has joined us as Lecturer in Film Studies. Taking his place as Teaching Fellow is Dr Saer Ba, whose research focuses on Francophone Cinemas. We welcome our new staff to St Andrews.

Special issue of Third Text: "Picturing 'Gypsies': Interdisciplinary Approaches to Roma Representation" now available

In the aftermath of the British Academy-sponsored workshop on Romani representation which took place in St. Andrews in March 2007, Paloma Gay y Blasco (Soc Anth, St Andrews) and Dina Iordanova edited a special issue of Third Text entitled "Picturing 'Gypsies': Interdisciplinary Approaches to Roma Representation". Our colleague Leshu Torchin was among the contributors, who comprised of scholars from across the UK, Europe, and the US. The issue approaches the topic in a truly interdisciplinary matter and looks at representations from across museums, exhibitions, photography, drawing, music and cinema. For a table of contents and additional information, please click on the link above.

Faculty Update: Professor Dina Iordanova to be keynote speaker at conference on Baltic Cinemas

Dina Iordanova is keynote speaker at the conference Baltic Cinemas: Past and Present, organized by the University of Latvia and taking place on 9 and 10 of September 2008 at the Film Museum in Riga. For information on the conference, please click on the above link.

Special Film Festivals issue of Film International now available.

Dina Iordanova has edited a special issue of Film International on Film Festivals, one of the areas of her current research. The issue includes articles on the proliferation of festivals by Sergi Mesonero Burgos (Barcelona), on the impact of convergence and difitisation on festivals by Marijke de Valck (Amsterdam), on the re-conceptualisaton of national cinema in the context of Pusan Film Festival by Soo Jeong Ahn (Seoul), on open air screenings at festivals and traveling projectionists by Kay Armatage (Toronto), on festivals and community building by Julian Strnger (Nottingham), as well as specific contributions on specific festivals -- on the festival in Cartagena, Tunisia, by Jeffrey Ruoff (Dartmouth), on the history of the Edinburgh Film Festival by Peter Stanfield (Canterbury), and on the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy by Bjørn Sørenssen (Trondheim). It also includes an interview with Berlinale veterans Ulrich and Erica Gregor (Berlin). The special issue (Vol. 6, issue 4) is on sale at Borders bookstores in the USA and the UK, and is available on-line from Intellect at http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=16516826

Faculty Update: Prof. Dina Iordanova to give lectures in Chicago

In October 2008 Dina Iordanova is teaching a short course entitled 'Balkan Cinema: Watching Across Borders' at the University of Chicago. While in Chicago, she will also host the two-part public event on 'Balkan Hushed Histories' (with screenings of the Macedonian film Black Seed and the Greek film A Touch of Spice), and talk at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.