The Radio Eye

Jerry White

Description

The Radio Eye: Cinema in the North Atlantic, 1958–1988, examines the way in which media experiments in Quebec, Newfoundland, the Faroe Islands, and the Irish-Gaelic-speaking communities of Ireland use film, video, and television to advocate for marginalized communities and often for “smaller languages.”

The Radio Eye is not, however, a set of isolated case studies. Author Jerry White illustrates the degree to which these experiments are interconnected, sometimes implicitly but more often quite explicitly. Media makers in the North Atlantic during the period 1958–1988 were very aware of each other’s cultures and aspirations, and, by structuring the book in two interlocking parts, White illustrates the degree to which a common project emerged during those three decades.

The book is bound together by White’s belief that these experiments are following in the idealism of Soviet silent filmmaker Dziga Vertov, who wrote about his notion of “the Radio Eye.” White also puts these experiments in the context of work by the Cuban filmmaker and theorist Julio García Espinosa and his notion of “imperfect cinema,” Jürgen Habermas and his notions of the “public sphere,” and Édourard Glissant’s ideas about “créolité” as the defining aspect of modern culture. This is a genuinely internationalist moment, and these experiments are in conversation with a wide array of thought across a number of languages.

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 17 novembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554582129
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THERADIO EYE

Film and Media Studies Series

Film studies is the critical exploration of cinematic texts as art and entertain ment, as well as the industries that produce them and the audiences that con sume them. Although a medium barely one hundred years old, film is already transformed through the emergence of new media forms. Media studies is an interdisciplinary field that considers the nature and effects of mass media upon individuals and society and analyzes media content and representations. Despite changing modes of consumption—especially the proliferation of indi viduated viewing technologies—film has retained its cultural dominance into the21st century, and it is this transformative moment that the WLU Press Film and Media Studies series addresses. Our Film and Media Studies series includes topics such as identity, gender, sexuality, class, race, visuality, space, music, new media, aesthetics, genre, youth culture, popular culture, consumer culture, regional/national cinemas, film policy, film theory, and film history. Wilfrid Laurier University Press invites submissions. For further infor mation, please contact the Series editors, all of whom are in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University:

Dr. Philippa Gates, Email: [e-mail] Dr. Russell Kilbourn, Email: [e-mail] Dr. Ute Lischke, Email: [e-mail] 75University Avenue West Waterloo, ONn2l 3c5 Canada Phone:5198840710 Fax:5198848307

THERADIO EYE Cinema in the North Atlantic, 1958–1988

jerry white

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We acknowl edge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

White, Jerry,1971– The radio eye : cinema in the North Atlantic,1958–1988/ Jerry White.

(Film and media studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued also in electronic format. ISBN 9781554581788

1. Motion pictures—Québec (Province)—History.2. Motion pictures—Newfoundland and Labrador—History.3. Motion pictures—Faroe Islands—History.4. Motion pictures—Ireland— Gaeltacht—History.5. Regionalism in motion pictures.6. Vertov, Dziga,1896–1954—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series: Film and media studies series

p94.5.m55w55 2009

791.4309

c2009903705x

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

White, Jerry, 1971– The radio eye [electronic resource] : cinema in the North Atlantic,1958–1988/ Jerry White.

(Film and media studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Electronic monograph in PDF, ePub, and XML format. Issued also in print format. ISBN9781554582129

1. Motion pictures—Québec (Province)—History.2. Motion pictures—Newfoundland and Labrador—History.3. Motion pictures—Faroe Islands—History.4. Motion pictures—Ireland— Gaeltacht—History.5. Regionalism in motion pictures.6. Vertov, Dziga,1896–1954—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series: Film and media studies series

p94.5.m55w55 2009

791.4309

Cover design by Martyn Schmoll. Cover photo, showing Michel Brault filmingPour la suite du monde (1963), courtesy of Cinémathèque québécoise. Photo used with permission of the National Film Board of Canada. Background image courtesy of iStockphoto. Text design by Catharine BonasTaylor.

©2009Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca

This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from100% post consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy. Printed in Canada

Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the pub lisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to18008935777.

For5Victoria Street, my most beloved North Atlantic stopover

This page intentionally left blank

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Notes on Sources and Language Introduction

Part 1 The Islands 1 |Pierre Perrault 2 |The NFB’s Newfoundland Project 3 |Sjónvarpsfelagið í Havn

Part 2 The Gaeltacht An Introduction to the Gaeltacht 4 |Desmond Fennell and Pierre Perrault 5 |Cinegael and the Newfoundland Project 6 |Teilifís na Gaeltachta and the Faroes

Conclusion Bibliography Index

ix xiii 1

31 57 89

120 151 181 207

235 255 269

vii

This page intentionally left blank

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements in academic works are famously longwinded and self indulgent. I promise to uphold that high standard here. Research for this book was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and it was indispen sable. I am very grateful. It was also supported in its earliest stages by the Fac ulty of Arts of the University of Alberta, and I’m also very grateful for the faith they showed in what must have seemed a very quixotic project. A lot of people have helped me along the way; I will go chapter by chapter. Introduction: Thanks to Steve Gravestock (Toronto International Film Festival) for sharing his expertise on Icelandic cinema, Þórarinn Guðnason (Kvikmyndasafn Íslands / Icelandic Film Archive) for guiding me through the history of Icelandic cinema, and Laufey Guðjónsdóttir (Kvikmyndasjóður Íslands / Icelandic Film Fund) for chatting with me about Iceland’s cinematic infrastructure. Chapter1: At Université Laval, Division des archives, I am grateful to Josée Pomminville, Sandra Morin, and James Lambert, for guiding me through the Fonds Pierre Perrault. The reproduction of the document from the Fonds Pierre Perrault in chapter4is by their kind permission. David Clandfield (New College, University of Toronto) invited me to contribute to the Pierre Perrault retrospective at the2006Toronto International Film Festival, and that got me started on a lot of this work. Daniel Laforest (University of Alberta) offered valuable feedback on the matter of Perrault as radio artist. Chapter2: I am grateful to Linda White at the Archives and Manuscripts Division of Memorial University of Newfoundland, and to the staff of their Centre for Newfoundland Studies. Darrell Varga (NSCAD University) pro vided precious feedback on an earlier version of this work, a shorter version of which appears in his bookRain/Drizzle/Fog: Essays on Film and Television

ix