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- Volume 14, Issue 1, 2016
New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2016
Volume 14, Issue 1, 2016
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Brazil, soft power and film culture
Authors: Stephanie Dennison and Alessandra MeleiroAbstractThis article takes as its starting point what we define as Brazil’s soft-power halcyon days (around 2009), as the nation seems set to maximize a range of opportunities (the upcoming World Cup and Olympics, for example) to take on a more significant role in global politics. It assesses the potential contribution of cinema to the Brazilian soft-power narrative, focusing on film policy, support for the dissemination of Brazilian films abroad and the place of film production within Brazil’s soft-power vision. It then discusses two films – Lula: Filho do Brasil (Lula: Son of Brazil, Barreto, 2009) and Aquarius (Mendonça Filho, 2016) – and the extent to which they trouble the very notion of film as a soft-power asset in Brazil. It concludes by commenting on more recent events in Brazil, and their likely effect on both the nation as a soft-power powerhouse and on film production in the country more broadly.
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Russian ‘Manipulative Smart Power’: Zviagintsev’s Oscar nomination, (non-)government agency and contradictions of the globalized world
By Vlad StrukovAbstractThrough an analysis of government documents regulating the film industry, I examine the structure and reach of Russian soft power in relation to BRICS and the West. I introduce the concept of ‘manipulative soft power’ to account for Russia’s re-orientation politically and also cinematically. The article explores a number of theoretical concerns including soft power and agency in the era of social media, soft power and the ‘attention economy’ where ‘attention currency’ is valued more than the product to which it is attached, and soft power and controversy and notoriety. I focus on a particular event: the release of Zviagintsev’s Leviathan, its nomination for the 2015 Oscars, and the associated controversy that engulfed Russia and the Russian speaking world in 2014–15 and that bled into international media, especially Anglophone media, thus re-focusing global attention on Russia. I analyse the government and media discourse surrounding the release of Leviathan, and I conclude by reflecting on Russian soft power and the country’s role in the process of globalization.
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Bollywood’s soft power: Branding the nation, sustaining a meta-hegemony
More LessAbstractI present my theory of a ‘meta-hegemony’ to examine the hierarchy of dominance in Indian cinema. This concept asserts that Bollywood dominates Indian cinema and culture whilst being subservient to a larger global Hollywood hegemony. I will investigate the meta-hegemony’s three distinctive facets within the internal contours of Indian cinema. The first feature is Bollywood’s monopoly over the Indian film industry’s modes of production, distribution, exhibition and capital generation. The second is Bollywood’s ideological propagation of a post-globalization master narrative through its role as national cultural signifier of India’s neo-liberal turn. The third facet of the meta-hegemony is Bollywood’s validation by the state as an instrument of soft power signifying Bollywood’s branding as national and global commodity. In the process, I posit the emergence of a New Wave of independent Indian cinema as a counter-narrative to Bollywood’s articulation of consumer capitalism. Ultimately, I argue that Bollywood’s brand of soft power is indexical of India’s transition to neo-liberalism and indicative of the nation’s agonistic arbitration between the traditional and the material.
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Film policy, the Chinese government and soft power
By Yanling YangAbstractThis article examines how the Chinese ruling party understands the role of film and how film policy has been used to promote China’s soft power. It first explores shifts in policy over a period of 60 years in order to identify the government’s overall approach to the film industry. Then it investigates ‘Zou Chu Qu’, the so-called ‘Going-Out Policy’, specifically aimed at promoting soft power. This article argues that, although the role of the film industry has been adjusted in response to developments in Chinese society, the principal function of film as a tool of propaganda, along with the broader censorship system, has not fundamentally changed. Such policy arrangements have resulted in a tension between the ‘attraction’ of soft power and the state’s attraction to censorship. Consequently, there currently seems little room for Chinese films to contribute to China’s soft power in any meaningful way.
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Soft power and South African film: Negotiating mutually incompatible agendas?
By Paul CookeAbstractThis article offers the first analysis of the role of film as a soft power asset in South Africa. It examines ways in which the policy priorities of the South African government have, until recently, seemed to work against the nation’s strategic aim to use film as a tool to leverage soft power in order to gain political influence across Africa, as well as to maximize the economic potential of globalization. The South African film economy is booming. Cape Town, in particular, has become a key production centre globally. International productions are attracted to the country by the versatility of its locations, its weather and its low cost, high quality, facilities. This has provided great employment opportunities for local production staff. However, it has done very little to support the development of local creative talent. Thus, unlike, for example, Nollywood, which supports the entire ‘value chain’ of production and which is allowing creative and technical expertise to develop in tandem, the success of the South African production infrastructure is to the detriment of South African filmmakers. In this article I investigate the extent to which the government’s economic imperative to develop the industry is working against its soft power aim to project South African stories both locally and internationally, and with it, the national ‘strategic narrative’, considered to be one of the country’s prime soft power assets. I then go on to suggest that the landscape would currently seem to be changing as a new generation of South African filmmakers is starting to gain ground.
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 20 (2022)
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Volume 19 (2021)
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Volume 18 (2020)
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Volume 17 (2020)
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Volume 16 (2018)
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Volume 15 (2017)
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Volume 14 (2016)
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Volume 13 (2015)
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Volume 12 (2014)
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Volume 11 (2013)
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Volume 10 (2012)
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Volume 9 (2011 - 2012)
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Volume 8 (2010 - 2011)
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Volume 7 (2009)
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Volume 6 (2008 - 2009)
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Volume 5 (2007)
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Volume 4 (2006 - 2007)
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Volume 3 (2005)
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Volume 2 (2004)
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Volume 1 (2002 - 2003)