RSSMix.com Mix ID 37139

Get a life!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:32:07 -0500

Saba Naqvi of Outlook asserts:My more earnest/ideological friends and relatives grumble that Shahrukh inhabits a no-mans bubble gum land on celluloid and has played a role in divesting movies of all social context. I say, hey, get a life! Movies are for fun and there are others who make gritty realistic movies (that are no [...]

Searching for the Roots of Cinema in India with Stephen Hughes

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:20:27 -0500

After demolishing the “established fact” that Electric theatre was the first permanent theatre in India in his May 2003 Seminar article “Pride of Place,” Stephen Hughes, a well known SOAS (University of London) scholar working on early Indian cinema history, came down heavily on the damage caused by the wrong “chronology of firsts” in [...]

The changing face of Amitabh Bachchan

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:54:45 -0500

An appropriately dramatic beginning for this would be, ‘There was once an actor who embodied rebellion, middle-class anger and anguish in popular Hindi cinema.’ Amitabh Bachchan who made the unlawful, illegitimate rogue figure so attractive in the cinema of the 1970s has turned his face away from anything even remotely oblique.Every actor has to change [...]

Commonwealth: Part 6

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:16:49 -0500

This chapter rethinks identity politics from the perspective of revolution. Hardt and Negri unfold their argument by first critiquing what might be called liberal or liberal multiculturalist variants of identity politics which have culminated in race-blind discourses and struggles for social recognition.Related posts:

Commonwealth: Part 5

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:16:28 -0500

The joining of neoliberalism and unilateralism in the latter half of the twentieth century is illustrative of the problems faced by capital in contending with the emergence of biopolitical production. In fact, the current crisis in neoliberalism is not due to unilateralism's death grip, but rather because both systems proved to be solutions generated by an outmoded approach to understanding production.Related posts:

The Bandwagon Effect of Wrong Film Historiography: The Case of Electric Theatre in Colonial Madras

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:55:07 -0500

Despite several volumes on the varied dimensions of Indian cinemas by numerous Indian, non-resident Indian and foreign scholars, film historiography remains a patchy area of study in India. In the absence of dependable archival sources on the early attempts by film pioneers in different parts of the country and their silent films, what circulates are [...]

The end of Miramax

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:41:23 -0500

Just over thirty years after it came into existence, Miramax studio that gave the world films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Chicago to name a few, was shut down by Disney. Click here to access the entire report.

CFP: Journal of War and Culture Studies

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:29:25 -0500

Volume 3Issue 2War, Culture, TechnologyEditors Martin Hurcombe and Simon KitsonDeadline for receipt of articles: 15 February 2010Publication date: July 2010The aim of this issue will be to consider the ways in which cultural representations of warfare have embodied, reflected and contributed to the often problematic dialogue between science and the arts since the advent of [...]

If the Oscars were run by critics

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:13:28 -0500

Nominations, predictions, surprises and catfights are usual fare in the run up to the most popular award show hosted by the Academy for Motion Pictures and Sciences. An interesting list was drawn up by the guys at TIME, that made early predictions about what film, director and actors would be honoured by the Academy if [...]

Power, politics and Bollywood

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:08:13 -0500

Here’s an interesting article on the politics of Bollywood. Refreshing to be seen in mainstream media.The questions to ask about a Bollywood film are not whether they are aesthetically good or bad, but how effective they are socially and politically. Do they add strength to caste society and its institutions? Or do they promote sexual [...]

CFP: Cinemas of the Arab World Wide Screen special issue

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:24:28 -0500

Cinemas of the Arab WorldCall for papers – special issue of Wide ScreenEditor: Latika Padgaonkar (film scholar, former Executive Editor, Cinemaya and festival director, Osian’s Cinefan Festival)The Arab world may be bound by language and religion, but it is in no sense homogeneous, neither in its history nor in its customs. Yet, over the years, [...]

Commonwealth: Part 4

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:40:09 -0500

Cross posted at Fugitive Imagination.Part 4: Empire Returns4.1 Brief History of a Failed Coup D’tatLet the Dead Bury the DeadFor Hardt and Negri, the definitive event of the 21st century, thus far, has been the failure of unilateralism. They see the failure of the US to gain imperial supremacy as evidence that imperialism itself is [...]Related posts:

Commonwealth: Part 3

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:01:04 -0500

Part 3 Capital (and the struggles over common wealth)3.1 Metamorphoses of the Composition of CapitalThis chapter proceeds to outline the biopolitical character of contemporary political economy and how contradictions rooted within this particular phase of global capitalism provide specific openings to social struggles centered on the common. First, Hardt and Negri detail the technical composition [...]Related posts:

The WTF movie of the year

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:15:54 -0500

Embedding is disallowed by our friends at Eros Entertainment. But do watch this and be amazed (link).

Commonwealth: Part 2

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:42:20 -0500

In this section Hardt and Negri problematise the traditional dialectic opposition of modernity/antimodernity. This opposition, they argue, is what gives rise to problematic notions of modernity as an unfinished project, inherently good, and simply in need of further advance.Related posts:

Commonwealth: Part 1

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:14 -0500

In the opening pages of Commonwealth Hardt and Negri claim that the book represents an attempt to articulate an ethical project, an ethics of democratic political action within and against Empire (vii). Reiterating their position in Empire and Multitude, they argue that despite the insecurities, conflicts, and contradictions wrought by globalization there is no longer any space outside the new global capitalist order. For better or worse, globalization has created a common world. Because there is no longer an outside, creating more sustainable and democratic futures requires acting in this world through new collective projects of self-rule and political invention.Related posts:

Commonwealth Project

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:09:15 -0500

Alex Means and Paul Aitken are collaborating on a project to discuss and review Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Commonwealth, the third installment of their "Empire Trilogy." In preparation, summary/notes of each section of the book will appear in the Analysis and Commentary section of Critical Stew and cross posted at their blogs. This is in the interest of generating critical conversation about the book and related issues. Unlike these schematic notes the book review will aim to accomplish two things (1) an excavation of some productive criticisms/limitations of Hardt and Negris project (2) the creation of something new by thinking with and against Hardt and Negri in the context of their respective intellectual interests.Related posts:

Mean world beliefs and mass media

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:47:07 -0500

Mass media can be a powerful tool to propagate "mean world" attitudes and beliefs. An exclusive interview with Dr Paul Boxer of Rutgers UniversityRelated posts:

Intellectuals, critique and power (in French)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:20:28 -0400

In the journal Agone (issues 41 and 42) a whole collection of articles and papers examine the role of intellectuals in regards of liberation struggles. The co-coordinators of these issues, Thierry Discepolo, Charles Jacquier eta Philippe Olivera, present the debate as follows: The intellectual would necessarily be “from the left”, he would only work naturally [...]Related posts:

Citizen journalism project in India

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:58:16 -0400

Women Aloud: Videoblogging for Empowerment (WAVE). The project involves training young women around India (one per state) to become citizen journalists telling video stories about positive change in their communities to an international audience online. Related posts:

Wide Screen on EBSCO

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:22:34 -0400

Subaltern Media has signed an agreement with EBSCO to distribute Wide Screen with the EBSCO service (link). This non-exclusive agreement increases the reach of Wide Screen beyond those who can access the journal online.KishoreEditor Wide Screen

Where is the old Subaltern Media?

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:18:09 -0400

When one moves on, all good things don’t have to come to an end. We haven’t given up on writing, particularly all the good work we did at Subaltern Media. The content we published on Subaltern Media has been moved over to Critical Stew (link) where the good work continues, this time in a bigger [...]