Academic literature on the topic 'Democratisation of film'

The importance of documentary filmmaking as a living medium and its historic contribution to recording and preserving Scotland's culture and international viewpoint cannot be overstated. But before the digital age, where was all this film material stored and what has survived? The current debate on film restoration and public access is ongoing and is illustrated through this article with my personal introduction to veteran BBC film producer James (Jim) Wilson whose enterprising career has documented so much of the twentieth century. Reflecting on this unique creative achievement, the historical context and value of his films, and those of others to society, deserve closer scrutiny. Questions need to be raised regarding government policy on film preservation and how Lottery funding can further support film restoration. Clarification is required, in this case, of possible relaxation to certain BBC licensing agreements to stimulate cooperation. Discussions are in progress which highlight the growing demand for more democratisation and further public access to these celluloid assets which can be quickly forgotten or destroyed. It is therefore encouraging that new partnerships are being forged to identify and restore the vast film collections. Building on the very significant activities of Scottish Screen Archive/National Library of Scotland. They deliver services on several levels including online film archive research/restoration facilities and exhibitions. But there is still a great deal of work to be done in this field. The Wilson film legacy is one such area and a meeting with BBC has been arranged to discuss the future potential of celebrating this special film collection.

This article examines the role women played, as film-makers and participants, in the development of the documentary genre from 1930 into the wartime period. In the 1930s and 1940s, the topics of slum clearance and town planning were a preoccupation of British documentary and non-fiction cinema. This article therefore first focuses on the little-known propaganda films generated by housing charities in the 1930s. After an examination of the use of films in the campaigns for better housing between the wars, it concentrates on three films which are linked by the inclusion of filmed interviews with the poorly housed. The study starts with a re-evaluation of Housing Problems (1935) and Kensal House (1937), widely regarded as the first of the genre, placing them in the context of the housing movement. It then gives an overview of the housing issue and female documentary-making during the Second World War, as background to a case study of film-maker Kay Mander, concentrating on her end-of-war manifesto Homes for the People (1945), which saw a further development of the interview technique and presented the women's perspective in a feminist manner. This article shows that women were not only instrumental in the development of the housing documentary but that the films they made promoted a female-orientated and progressive view of housing provision and town planning for working-class people. It was a passion for social change and a growing belief in the democratisation of the image of the poorly housed that determined changes in treatment in the films of the documentary film movement.

In Indonesia, decentralisation has emerged in the name of democratisation over the last decades. Decentralisation, politically, has significantly shaped the relationship between the central and local governments. Therefore, many have believed that the decentralisation is equivalent to the democratisation process. In this article, we attempt to answer these questions: (1) is the decentralisation compatible with consolidated democratisation in Indonesia? (2) How is “the rule by people” implemented for the sake of democracy; in other words, how local people fill these spaces? In this article, we argue that there has been a connection between democratisation process and decentralisation. However, the relationship seems to be superficial.

This article focuses on the part played by Moroccan and Tunisian labour in the 2011 Arab Uprisings and their outcomes, aiming to add fresh evidence to the long-standing debate over the place of social classes in democratisation processes. In Morocco, most labour confederations supported a new constitution that did not alter the undemocratic nature of the political system. In Tunisia, instead, rank-and-file trade unionists successfully rallied the single labour confederation in support of the popular mobilisations, eventually contributing to democratisation. The most important facilitating factor for these divergent processes and outcomes was the different level of working-class power existing in the two countries. On the eve of the Uprisings, working-class power was higher in Tunisia than in Morocco and this enabled Tunisian workers to mobilise more effectively. Democratisation in Tunisia, however, has so far failed to address the demands for social justice that were at the core of the Uprisings.

The idea of understanding and assessing the EU’s role in promoting democratic values in the neighbourhood has acquired a central place in the EU’s external relations discourse. At the same time, in the literature on democratisation, education is conventionally considered one of the key prerequisites of successful democratic transition and consolidation. Still, a rich body of democracy promotion literature and Europeanisation studies never discuss education as a possible mechanism of democratic socialisation. The article aims to fill this gap by bringing together these two different scholarly traditions and by looking at EU-Russia educational cooperation as a mechanism to promote democratic values. The following propositions are advanced on the basis of the analysis: (1) democracy promotion is both implicitly and explicitly present in the EU-Russia educational policy discourse; (2) the level of education is a valid predictor of more democratic attitudes in Russia and, hence, should be considered a strong factor of a country’s democratisation.

The usefulness of a uniform resource locator (URL) on the World Wide Web is reliant on the resource being hosted at the same URL in perpetuity. When URLs are altered or removed, this results in the resource, such as an image or document, being inaccessible. While web-archiving projects seek to prevent such a loss of online resources, providing complete backups of the web remains a formidable challenge. This article outlines the initial development and testing of a decentralised application (DApp), provisionally named Repudiation Chain, as a potential tool to help address these challenges presented by shifting URLs and uncertain web-archiving. Repudiation Chain seeks to make use of a blockchain smart contract mechanism in order to allow individual users to contribute to web-archiving. Repudiation Chain aims to offer unalterable assurance that a specific file and its URL existed at a given point in time—by generating a compact, non-reversible representation of the file at the time of its non-repudiation. If widely adopted, such a tool could contribute to decentralisation and democratisation of web-archiving.

A quite large number of developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which are today characterised by chronic underdevelopment, general social retardation, slow social mobility, and political instability became highly prone to military interventions in politics in their initial phases of decolonization soon after World War II. These military interventions in the fragile civil polities and stagnant economies, termed by some scholars as the coup zone, are justified and legitimised on various pretexts of modernisation, democratisation, and reform; which means that the military seeks to fill the institutional vacuum when the overall civil administration of the country breaks down as a consequence of the rivalry for pelf and power between various ruling classes. Thus, the military has emerged as the most powerful institution in these countries. Some social revolutions of modern times, in China in 1949, for example, and in Cuba in 1959, were caused by endemic military interventions in the civil society.

Knowledge about the ‘other’ is one of the founding pillars for the development of global political theory. Although human rights are an important part of the moral and legal discourse on global governance, there is still a gap between these theories and detailed accounts of human rights violations and the context for resistance. This article examines the treatment of the ‘other’ in a specific country (Iran), and the oppression as Muslims of Iranians living abroad, in order to begin to fill this gap. More specifically, it is argued that anthropology, journalism and diaspora literature about Iran provide useful input for the field of global political theory on human rights, democratisation and global justice. This literature helps bring home the realities of human rights violations, contributes to a better understanding of injustice and ways of creating social change, and illuminates issues of universality and difference that are of direct relevance to global political theory.

Maps always have and always will have blank spots, but maps are no longer the privilege of paper; they have been moved to the digital environment. How can digital maps fill the empty spaces in the current online and crowdsourcing mapping era? In this paper the authors pose several questions and in the same breath they are aware that some of those questions may not be answered. The paper presents the research note with use of visual comparison method, that may not provide concrete results, but merely a glipse of the situation Who does cover certain areas better – OpenStreetMap or commercial providers? And what does “better” coverage actually mean? Mapping the unmapped is not only a question of spatial literacy, but also part of the GeoParticipation and democratisation process taking place within the digital spatial industry of today. The authors focus their research on three areas (Kibera, Minsk and North Korea). The research covers 18 months of data for three major commercial providers and for one collaborative platform – OpenStreetMap.

Abstract Translanguaging refers to the dynamic meaning-making process whereby multilingual language users make full use of their communicative repertoires by crossing the boundaries between named languages and other semiotic and modal resources (García and Li 2014). Director Bong Joon-ho is well-known for utilising such border-crossing practices in his films, specifically, for his strategic and creative use of multiple languages and translation. He also extends this practice to his live interviews where an interpreter is usually present. This article focuses on understanding Director Bong Joon-ho’s translanguaging practices in interviews. It first examines how he communicates through translanguaging and for what purposes, and secondly how he and his interpreter collaboratively and strategically make use of translation as translanguaging. Through the study, we wish to make the case for (a) approaching translation as collaborative translanguaging practices and an act of democratisation, and (b) understanding translanguaging practices in connection with speakers’ positioning and experience in navigating values and ways of speaking which may be culturally and linguistically specific. These translanguaging practices provide powerful arguments against any assertion that named languages exist as separate and discrete systems, challenge the default position of English as the lingua franca in global communication, and offer a corrective to the prestige and power associated with English.

This thesis examines the implementation of the new digital information and communications technologies (ICTs) by the Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Non-government organisation (NGO) at the state, national and international levels through an ethnographic, participant observation case study, informed by the precepts of feminist research. A quantitative survey of Australian peak women's NGOs participating in the electronic mailing list - Pamela's List is also conducted mapping the context in which WIFT operates and providing an overview of Australian women's peak NGOs' uptake and use of ICTs. The findings are situated in relation to a review of the international surveys available on women's NGOs and the surveys and research reports available on the overall NGO sector, nationally and internationally. The study addresses two neglected areas in the ICT literature. For over a decade Feminist theorists have pointed to the omission of gender as a focus in studies on the new information and communications technologies. There has also been little research and few surveys into the uptake of ICTs by either women's NGOs or the broader NGO sector, nationally or internationally. The detailed, longitudinal case study of the implementation process from pre-establishment through to advanced use of digital communications by a women's NGO at state, national and international level is also unique. Combined with the survey, it affords the opportunity to not only document which ICTs are being adopted but also why particular technologies are being used over others and how they are being used. Despite key successes, the results show less than optimum uptake, a lack of advanced or strategic use, and the myriad of challenges shared by all three WIFT organisations, Australian women's peak NGOs, and the national and international NGO sector in utilising ICTs. The reasons for this are analysed revealing the conflicting values between the NGO sector and those underlying the development of ICTs and demonstrates that difficulties systemic to both the technology and the NGO sector are limiting access and utilisation by women's NGOs. While the myths of women as technophobic are seriously challenged by the findings, the study highlights the importance of gender factors in limiting access and uptake and shaping the use of ICTs. Australian women's NGOs' uptake is shown to be less than their mixed gender counterparts and the study also reveals a lack of acknowledgement by government of gender as a key factor in the uptake of ICTs. It is also shown that significant funding, infrastructure support and policy initiatives recognising the special technological and communication challenges of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector are needed, if both are to fully and strategically embrace these technologies and function effectively in the new millennium. The significant contribution to knowledge of this thesis lies foremost in furthering the understanding of gender as a key factor in the uptake and utilisation of the new ICTs while at the same time challenging the patriarchal myth of women as technophobic. It thus contributes to the reconstruction of the epistemologies surrounding women's relationship to technology. The study also contributes to furthering the current very limited knowledge and understanding of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector's uptake and use of information and communications technology. The knowledge and the critical insight provided is not purely historical but rather as the push to take up broadband begins, has relevance to this and future technological innovations. Without an understanding of the process, requirements and challenges faced by women's NGOs and the NGO sector in general, the existing problems will continue to be replicated. The material presented in this study will be useful to all women's organisations and NGOs contemplating establishing digital communications or wishing to review their current use of these technologies. It will also be of value to government and policy makers seeking to establish policies and initiatives that will enable NGOs to take up the new information and communication technologies.

This thesis examines the implementation of the new digital information and communications technologies (ICTs) by the Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Non-government organisation (NGO) at the state, national and international levels through an ethnographic, participant observation case study, informed by the precepts of feminist research. A quantitative survey of Australian peak women's NGOs participating in the electronic mailing list - Pamela's List is also conducted mapping the context in which WIFT operates and providing an overview of Australian women's peak NGOs' uptake and use of ICTs. The findings are situated in relation to a review of the international surveys available on women's NGOs and the surveys and research reports available on the overall NGO sector, nationally and internationally. The study addresses two neglected areas in the ICT literature. For over a decade Feminist theorists have pointed to the omission of gender as a focus in studies on the new information and communications technologies. There has also been little research and few surveys into the uptake of ICTs by either women's NGOs or the broader NGO sector, nationally or internationally. The detailed, longitudinal case study of the implementation process from pre-establishment through to advanced use of digital communications by a women's NGO at state, national and international level is also unique. Combined with the survey, it affords the opportunity to not only document which ICTs are being adopted but also why particular technologies are being used over others and how they are being used. Despite key successes, the results show less than optimum uptake, a lack of advanced or strategic use, and the myriad of challenges shared by all three WIFT organisations, Australian women's peak NGOs, and the national and international NGO sector in utilising ICTs. The reasons for this are analysed revealing the conflicting values between the NGO sector and those underlying the development of ICTs and demonstrates that difficulties systemic to both the technology and the NGO sector are limiting access and utilisation by women's NGOs. While the myths of women as technophobic are seriously challenged by the findings, the study highlights the importance of gender factors in limiting access and uptake and shaping the use of ICTs. Australian women's NGOs' uptake is shown to be less than their mixed gender counterparts and the study also reveals a lack of acknowledgement by government of gender as a key factor in the uptake of ICTs. It is also shown that significant funding, infrastructure support and policy initiatives recognising the special technological and communication challenges of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector are needed, if both are to fully and strategically embrace these technologies and function effectively in the new millennium. The significant contribution to knowledge of this thesis lies foremost in furthering the understanding of gender as a key factor in the uptake and utilisation of the new ICTs while at the same time challenging the patriarchal myth of women as technophobic. It thus contributes to the reconstruction of the epistemologies surrounding women's relationship to technology. The study also contributes to furthering the current very limited knowledge and understanding of women's NGOs and the overall NGO sector's uptake and use of information and communications technology. The knowledge and the critical insight provided is not purely historical but rather as the push to take up broadband begins, has relevance to this and future technological innovations. Without an understanding of the process, requirements and challenges faced by women's NGOs and the NGO sector in general, the existing problems will continue to be replicated. The material presented in this study will be useful to all women's organisations and NGOs contemplating establishing digital communications or wishing to review their current use of these technologies. It will also be of value to government and policy makers seeking to establish policies and initiatives that will enable NGOs to take up the new information and communication technologies.

(Synopsis to introductory statement): An introductory statement to five documentary films made by Ian Lang in Australia between 1981 and 1997 exemplifying  a 'democratising' model of sustainable and ethical documentary film production. This document critically reflects on the production process of these films to accompany their submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at Griffith University. It finds that a contemporary tendency towards 'post-industrial' conditions allows an observational film-maker to negotiate a critical inter-dependence rather than a romantically conceived 'independence' traditional to the genre. [Full thesis consists of introductory statement plus six DVD videodiscs.]

(Synopsis to introductory statement): An introductory statement to five documentary films made by Ian Lang in Australia between 1981 and 1997 exemplifying  a 'democratising' model of sustainable and ethical documentary film production. This document critically reflects on the production process of these films to accompany their submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at Griffith University. It finds that a contemporary tendency towards 'post-industrial' conditions allows an observational film-maker to negotiate a critical inter-dependence rather than a romantically conceived 'independence' traditional to the genre. [Full thesis consists of introductory statement plus six DVD videodiscs.]
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy by Publication (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Full Text

Le film d’opéra correspond à la rencontre de deux formes d’art ayant chacune ses propres règles de mise en scène. Il nécessite de concilier les exigences de l’opéra et celles du cinéma, mais prétend aussi favoriser leur enrichissement mutuel. Notre réflexion porte sur la pertinence, du point de vue créatif, de cette rencontre. Elle vise à mettre en évidence les risques, les enjeux et les intérêts artistiques du film d’opéra. Le corpus revêt une dimension franco-italienne : il se compose de cinq films produits par Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Don Giovanni de Joseph Losey, Carmen de Francesco Rosi, La Bohème de Luigi Comencini, Madame Butterfly de Frédéric Mitterrand, Tosca de Benoît Jacquot) et de deux autres, non produits par lui : La Traviata et Otello de Franco Zeffirelli, qui appartiennent à cette même « vague » du film d’opéra. L’étude s’intéresse tout d’abord à la politique culturelle du producteur Daniel Toscan du Plantier, grâce à qui ce genre cinématographique s’est développé de façon significative dans les années 1980, afin de définir le contexte de création de ses films, de comprendre son engagement en faveur de ce genre artistique et son intérêt tout particulier pour la culture italienne. Notre analyse tend par la suite à évaluer les difficultés techniques ainsi que les libertés créatives qu’engendre le passage à l’écran. L’écriture cinématographique de l’opéra implique des concessions sur le plan de la réalisation et nécessite un positionnement entre les deux esthétiques, mais elle permet aussi une lecture nouvelle et originale de l’opéra. Nous évaluons à la fois les exigences résultant de l’articulation opéra-cinéma et les solutions apportées par les réalisateurs pour répondre à ces contraintes, bien souvent musicales. La réflexion se concentre dans la seconde partie sur l’aboutissement de cette union, tout d’abord à travers l’analyse de l’interprétation visuelle de la musique fournie par les réalisateurs pour chacun des films du corpus, selon une approche thématique. Elle montre comment l’image mobile transcrit la musique, comment l’écriture cinématographique traduit visuellement la partition et peut accroître la dimension émotive. Enfin, elle s’intéresse à la réception de ces films en France et en Italie, en vue de mesurer l’accueil reçu par chacun auprès de la critique, partagée entre démocratisation de l’opéra et vulgarisation de l’art lyrique
The "opera film" corresponds to the encounter between two art forms envolving specific staging rules. It combines the requirements of opera and cinema alike whilst endeavouring to promote their mutual enrichment. In this dissertation I analyse the relevance of this encounter from a creative point of view. I intend to highlight the risks, stakes and artistic appropriateness of the opera film. The body of works has a Franco-italian dimension: it includes five films produced by Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni, Francesco Rosi's Carmen, Luigi Comencini's La Bohème, Frédéric Mitterrand's Madama Butterfly and Benoît Jacquot's Tosca) as well as two other films which he did not produced: La Traviata and Otello, by Franco Zeffirelli, also belong to this opera film "wave". First of all, I examine Daniel Toscan du Plantier's cultural policy as a producer. Indeed, it was thanks to him that this cinematic genre flourished significantly in the 1980s. I aim to define the creative context of these films and to understand his commitment towards their promotion as well as his genuine interest for Italian culture. I then move on to analysing the technical difficulties as well as the creative licence which results from screen adaptation. On the one hand, the cinematographic writing of opera implies concessions in staging and requires a position be taken in respect of aesthetics, cinematographic and opera. On the other hand, it also triggers a new and original reading of opera. I assess the requirements which result from the opera-cinema articulation and the solutions, often musical, proposed by films directors confronted to these constraints. In Part II I focus on the achievements of this union, first by thematically analysing each director's the visual interpretation of music provided in the films included in the body of works. I argue that the moving image transcribes music, that cinematographic writing translates the music score visually and that it can enhance the emotional dimension. Finally, I examine the response to these films in France and in Italy, especially through the critics divided between the democratisation of opera and the vulgarisation of lyric art

From the outset, this book has focused on a comparative analysis of the auditory setting’s formation in film and audiovisual media artworks using ambient sounds gathered from actual sites and their sonic environments. However, the findings of the book can also be considered more broadly to inform the potential future of global sound production in which various forms and formats of expression coalesce. Film sound and media art practices may intersect through intensive technological convergence, aesthetic inclusivity, a sense of democratisation and artistic freedom. A sense of inclusivity and creative freedom could trigger the production of new, hybrid artistic forms enriched with experimentation, which could subvert former and current industrial norms and their limitations....

In the past, there was always a clear delineation between fiction and the news or fiction and documentary film. Today, however, elements of crossover and hybridization it can be observed in most formats: reality and fiction, public and private, are intermingled. Life itself seeps into fictional accounts, approaching the eternal comedy. Digital formats permit the multiplication of stories and the democratisation of productions. They create a true amalgam of new and old hybrid products, such that comedy also infuses the non-fiction content. Social change is convincingly reflected in the stories that each collective elaborates and consumes. Today, without question, audiovisual stories offer a clear, in-depth analysis of all the social transformations in which we currently find ourselves immersed, therefore this chapter offers an exploration of the novel formats that are extended into the stories that are told on television and on the internet.

The disempowerment that results from de-democratisation is captured in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Chevalier , which tells the story of six middle-aged men who gather on a boat in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Athens. During the trip the men spend most of their time playing an elaborate game called chevalier. It involves contests devised by the participants and the assessment of each player on everything he does. The game comes to dominate every aspect of the men’s lives, including daily routines and private interactions. The men’s willing immersion in such an all-encompassing competition demonstrates the pervasiveness of the neoliberal ethos that the game embodies and the social impotence of its participants. Chevalier undermines the spectator’s investment in psychological realism by reducing the differences between characters, the significance of their actions and the expressiveness of their dialogue. Through its defiance of our expectations of realism, Tsangari’s film denaturalises the depoliticisation and managerialism at the heart of neoliberal governance.