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: 9781554582990
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 16 Mo

Extrait

THE RADIO EYE
Film and Media Studies Series
Film studies is the critical exploration of cinematic texts as art and entertainment, as well as the industries that produce them and the audiences that consume 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 individuated viewing technologies-film has retained its cultural dominance into the 21st 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 information, 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]
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THE RADIO 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 acknowledge 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-Qu bec (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
P 94.5. M 55 w 55 2009 791.4309 C 2009-903705- 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.
ISBN 978-1-55458-212-9
1. Motion pictures-Qu bec (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
P 94.5. M 55 W 55 2009 791.4309
Cover design by Martyn Schmoll. Cover photo, showing Michel Brault filming Pour la suite du monde (1963), courtesy of Cin math que qu b coise. Photo used with permission of the National Film Board of Canada. Background image courtesy of iStockphoto. Text design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.
2009 Wilfrid 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 from 100% 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 publisher 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 to 1-800-893-5777.
For 5 Victoria Street, my most beloved North Atlantic stopover
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Notes on Sources and Language
Introduction
P ART 1 T HE I SLANDS
1 Pierre Perrault
2 The NFB s Newfoundland Project
3 Sjónvarpsfelagið í Havn
P ART 2 T HE G AELTACHT
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
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 indispensable. I am very grateful. It was also supported in its earliest stages by the Faculty 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, rarinn Gu nason (Kvikmyndasafn slands / Icelandic Film Archive) for guiding me through the history of Icelandic cinema, and Laufey Gu j nsd ttir (Kvikmyndasj ur slands / Icelandic Film Fund) for chatting with me about Iceland s cinematic infrastructure.
Chapter 1 : At Universit Laval, Division des archives, I am grateful to Jos e 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 chapter 4 is by their kind permission. David Clandfield (New College, University of Toronto) invited me to contribute to the Pierre Perrault retrospective at the 2006 Toronto 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.
Chapter 2 : 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) provided precious feedback on an earlier version of this work, a shorter version of which appears in his book Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Essays on Film and Television in Atlantic Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2008). Tom Waugh (Concordia University) included me in his Challenge for Change workshop at the 2007 conference of the Film Studies Association of Canada, and that helped me focus a lot of my ideas about the roots of the Newfoundland Project.
Chapter 3 : I published a sort of what I did on my summer research trip in the Faroes article in the online magazine Synoptique 9 (2005); thanks to Adam Rosaduik (Concordia University) for asking me to contribute this piece which, while chock full of errors, got me moving on this work. I am very grateful to rni Conradsson for lending me his scrapbook of press cuttings related to Sj nvarpsfelagi Havn and for making me copies of some of their programs; that material was invaluable. Jan Berg J rgensen and J na Dalsgar at Sj nvarp F roya helped me find and make copies of key television programs. Zakaris Hansen, of the department of Faroese at Fro skaparsetur F roya, helped me track down people involved in early Faroese television. Turi Sigur ard ttir, dean of Language and Literature and professor of Faroese at Fro skaparsetur F roya, deserves special thanks; she has been of enormous help to me during my trips to the Faroes, a sort of intellectual lighthouse in a climate that was, at times, very foggy and windblown indeed. She also brought us to her sister Inga R sa Joensen and to Undir Ryggi 13; hardly a day goes by when I don t think back to the happy days my family and I spent there, and we are all very grateful indeed.
Gaeltacht Introduction: I spent a very agreeable and enlightening afternoon chatting with An Comhairleoir Seosamh Cuaig about the civil rights movement in the Gaeltacht; he was most hospitable and patient, and I thank him. Andrew Burke (University of Winnipeg) led me to Raymond Williams on Television .
Chapter 4 : I presented a much shorter version of this chapter at the Constructions of Identity in Ireland and Quebec workshop at Concordia University in October 2006. Thanks to Michael Kenneally, Rhona Richman Kenneally, and Ron Rudin, all of Concordia, for inviting me. Thanks also to Desmond Fennell, for permission to reprint his Gaeltacht map and the image from his book Heresies .
Chapter 5 : Ann Mitchell at the library of the National University of Ireland, Galway, made me feel very welcome and helped me find my way through their extensive collection of Irish-language newspapers. Miriam Allen and the staff at Galway Film Centre helped me copy video material. Ever since I became interested in the Gaeltacht, Bob Quinn has been a welcoming presence, a skeptical ear, a critical reader, and an all-around men