Featuring essays by and interviews with festival programmers, filmmakers, activists, and film scholars, "Film Festivals and Activism" explores the role of film festivals in social justice movements and campaigns.

The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in film festivals, with the field growing to a position of prominence within the space of a few short years. Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice represents a major addition to the literature on this topic, offering an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the area. With a combination of chapters specifically examining history, theory, method and practice, it offers a clear structure and systematic approach for the study of film festivals. Offering a collection of essays written by an international range of established scholars, it discusses well-known film festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, but equally devotes attention to the diverse range of smaller and/or specialized events that take place around the globe. It provides essential knowledge on the origin and development of film festivals, discusses the use of theory to study festivals, explores the methods of ethnographic and archival research, and looks closely at the professional practice of programming and film funding. Each section, moreover, is introduced by the editors, and all chapters include useful suggestions for further reading. This will be an essential textbook for students studying film festivals as part of their film, media and cultural studies courses, as well as a strong research tool for scholars that wish to familiarize themselves with this burgeoning field.

This collection explores the intersections between anthropology and film festival studies. Film and anthropology scholars map ethnographic film festivals and ethnographic approaches to festivals worldwide. The book provides a historical reconstruction of most of the main festivals exhibiting ethnographic film, considering the parallel evolution of programming and organisational practices across the globe. It also addresses the great value and challenges of ethnographic research tools for studying the wide-ranging field of film festivals. This volume is the first to collect long-term experiences of curating and exhibiting ethnographic film, as well as new approaches to the understanding of film festival practices. Its contributions reflect on curatorial practices within visual anthropology and their implications for ethnographic filmmaking, and they shed light on problems of cultural translation, funding, festival audiences and the institutionalisation of ethnographic cinema. The book offers a novel perspective on film festivals as showcases for cinema, socio-cultural hubs and distribution nodes. Aimed at anthropologists, media scholars, festival organisers and documentary film professionals, it offers a starting point for the study of ethnographic film exhibition within its cultural and social contexts.

First runner-up for the 2019 John Leo and Dana Heller Award from the Popular Culture Association Surprisingly, Hollywood is still clumsily grappling with its representation of sexual minorities, and LGBTQ filmmakers struggle to find a place in the mainstream movie industry. However, organizations outside the mainstream are making a difference, helping to produce and distribute authentic stories that are both by and for LGBTQ people. Turning the Page introduces readers to three nonprofit organizations that, in very different ways, have each positively transformed the queer media landscape. David R. Coon takes readers inside In the Life Media, whose groundbreaking documentaries on the LGBTQ experience aired for over twenty years on public television stations nationwide. Coon reveals the successes of POWER UP, a nonprofit production company dedicated to mentoring filmmakers who can turn queer stories into fully realized features and short films. Finally, he turns to Three Dollar Bill Cinema, an organization whose film festivals help queer media find an audience and whose filmmaking camps for LGBTQ youth are nurturing the next generation of queer cinema. Combining a close analysis of specific films and video programs with extensive interviews of industry professionals, Turning the Page demonstrates how queer storytelling in visual media has the potential to empower individuals, strengthen communities, and motivate social justice activism.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals. Contributors from across the globe offer in-depth analysis of both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including Hot Docs (Canada), Nyon (Switcherland), Yamagata (Japan), DocChina, Full Frame (US), Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), Vikalp (India), and DocsBarcelona (Catalonia, Spain), among others. With a special focus on historical and political developments, this first volume draws a map of documentary festivals operating today, and then looks at their origins and evolution. This volume is organized in three sections: the first addresses methodological problems film historians and social scientists face when researching documentary film festivals, the second looks at the historical development of this circuit within the wider frame of history of world and national cinemas, and the third reflects on how politics find their way through festival programs and actions. Curatorial, organizational, industrial and political changes occurred in the festival realm addressed in this book help better understand how these affected documentary production, distribution, curation, exhibition and reception up to this day.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals, looking at its contemporary and future challenges. Contributors from across the globe reflect on how documentary has positioned itself within both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including IDFA (Netherlands), Cannes IFF (France), Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Dockanema (Mozambique), Ismailia (Egypt) and Zinebi (Basque Country, Spain), among others. With a special focus on industrial and curatorial developments, this second in a two-volume set looks at recent changes occurred in the festival circuit, such as the proliferation of markets and co-production forums, the inclusion of interactive and VR forms within their programs and the irruption of VOD platforms, and analyse how these affect the future of documentary aesthetics and its production/distribution contexts. This volume is organized in two sections: the first reflects on how the documentary festival circuit has become a key industry node for contemporary documentary and identifies new curatorial trends at documentary and major film festivals. The second gives voice to professionals working for festivals and institutions who collaborate with them, who share inside knowledge and concerns, regarding the future challenges to be faced by documentary in the near future.

This book examines the role of community filmmaking in society and its connection with issues of cultural diversity, innovation, policy and practice in various places. Deploying a range of examples from Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong, the chapters show that film emerging from outside the mainstream film industries and within community contexts can lead to innovation in terms of both content and processes and a better representation of the cultural diversity of a range of communities and places. The book aims to situate the community filmmaker as the central node in the complex network of relationships between diverse communities, funding bodies, policy and the film industries.