Filming Difference
Actors, Directors, Producers, and Writers on Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Film
Addressing representation and identity in a variety of production styles and genres, including experimental film and documentary, independent and mainstream film, and television drama, Filming Difference poses fundamental questions about the ways in which the art and craft of filmmaking force creative people to confront stereotypes and examine their own identities while representing the complexities of their subjects.
Selections range from C. A. Griffith's "Del Otro Lado: Border Crossings, Disappearing Souls, and Other Transgressions" and Celine Perreñas Shimizu's "Pain and Pleasure in the Flesh of Machiko Saito's Experimental Movies" to Christopher Bradley's "I Saw You Naked: 'Hard' Acting in 'Gay' Movies," along with Kevin Sandler's interview with Paris Barclay, Yuri Makino's interview with Chris Eyre, and many other perspectives on the implications of film production, writing, producing, and acting.
Technical aspects of the craft are considered as well, including how contributors to filmmaking plan and design films and episodic television that feature difference, and how the tools of cinema—such as cinematography and lighting—influence portrayals of gender, race, and sexuality. The struggle between economic pressures and the desire to produce thought-provoking, socially conscious stories forms another core issue raised in Filming Difference. Speaking with critical rigor and creative experience, the contributors to this collection communicate the power of their media.
A compelling, fascinating, even inspirational reading experience. By exposing the critical voices of media makers, this volume provides vital discursive tools.
Daniel Bernardi is Director of Film and Media Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe. He is the author of STAR TREK and History: Race-ing Toward Whiteness and editor of several volumes on whiteness and film history.
- Acknowledgments
- Different Visions, Revolutionary Perceptions: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Work of Contemporary Filmmakers (Daniel Bernardi)
- Part 1: Exposing Bodies
- 1. Disability Is Us: Remembering, Recovering, and Remaking the Image of Disability (Laura Kissel)
- 2. "I Saw You Naked": "Hard" Acting in "Gay" Movies (Christopher Bradley)
- 3. Pain and Pleasure in the Flesh of Machiko Saito's Experimental Movies (Celine Parreñas Shimizu)
- Part 2: Border Visions
- 4. Framing Identities / The Evolving Self: Beyond the Academic Director (Cristina Kotz Cornejo)
- 5. Indigenism, (In)Visibility: Notes on Migratory Film (John Thornton Caldwell)
- 6. Traversing Cinematic Borders: An Interview with Paul Espinosa (Daniel Bernardi)
- Part 3: Global Identities
- 7. Del Otro Lado: Border Crossings, Disappearing Souls, and Other Transgressions (C. A. Griffith)
- 8. Faith in Sexual Difference: The Inquisition of a Creative Process (Daniel S. Cutrara)
- 9. Dead Conversations on Art and Politics: José Gudalupe Posada Interviews John Jota Leaños (John Jota Leaños)
- Part 4: Independent Ambitions
- 10. Neither Color Blind, Nor Near-Sighted: Representation, Race, and the Academic Filmmaker (Aaron Greer)
- 11. Performing to Perform the Other: Developing Roles Different from Oneself (Sheldon Schiffer)
- 12. Cinematic Reservations: An Interview with Chris Eyre (Yuri Makino)
- Part 5: True Hollywood Stories
- 13. "And Maybe There Is a Way to Give Hollywood the Kick in the Ass That It Needs": An Interview with Karyn Kusama (Dan Rybicky)
- 14. From Selena to Walkout: An Interview with Moctesuma Esparza (Kathryn F. Galan)
- 15. Negotiating the Politics of (In)Difference in Contemporary Hollywood: An Interview with Kimberly Peirce (Denise Mann)
- 16. Televising Difference: An Interview with Paris Barclay (Kevin Sandler)
- Selected Bibliography, Chiara Ferrari
- List of Contributors
- Index
