Intellect

The UK's largest African film festival Africa in Motion takes place this 2-6th November in Edinburgh. The festival brings together the best in new cinema from Africa, classic films from the continent's most-celebrated filmmakers, award-winning documentaries, seminars, exhibitions and events. 

Looking for more meme time? Then move it to Milwaukee for the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel, running Friday through Sunday. This annual event brings together scholars, educators and enthusiasts from across the academic spectrum. Everything from sports and comedy studies to disaster culture and virtual environments will be discussed. Come meet Paul Booth, editorial member of the forthcoming Journal of Fandom Studies on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 4:45–6:00 pm at the Intellect exhibit. Learn more about submitting to this exciting new journal. Amy, Intellect’s North American representative hopes to meet you in Milwaukee—the other great city on the shores of Lake Michigan.

"A collaborative project between the photographer Kamil Turowski and Cultural  Studies scholar Katarzyna Marciniak, Streets of Crocodiles is a collection of photographs and essays that document, and poignantly comment on, the turbulent social and cultural transformations that continue to take place in postsocialist Poland. While Turowski’s lens zooms in on the city of Ło´dz´, the broad conceptual scope of Marciniak’s criticism may well apply to many post-1989 Second World societies." - By Aga Skrodzka

Read the full review here.

‘The Games for Health Conference is a wonderful mixture of hard-core gamers, health care professionals and technology enthusiasts. All united by a common goal: creating fun and engaging experiences that improve health and well-being.’

Intellect is pleased to sponsor the first edition of ‘Games for Health Europe’, which will be held October 24th and 25th 2011 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Over 500 attendees from Europe, the USA and Asia will participate in presentations, experience state of the art demonstrations and share knowledge in informative workshops. A wide range of researchers, game developers and medical professionals will provide conference content.

The conference will also provide a central stage for discussions on how IT technology with a specific focus on gaming and simulation can contribute to the improvement of health and health care.

Intellect welcomes contributions on the theme of Games for Health in the journals Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, Metaverse Creativity and Journal of Applied Arts & Health.

We are greatly saddened by the death of Dragan Klaic, author of the forthcoming 2012 title Resetting the Stage: Public Theatre Between the Market and Democracy, who tragically passed away in late August.

Dragan Klaic was a well-respected theatre scholar and cultural analyst. He served as a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam and as Visiting Professor of Cultural Policy at the Central European University in Budapest. He also taught regularly at the Leiden University, University of Bologna, Belgrade University of Arts and Bilgi University in Istanbul.

We are so glad to have had the pleasure of working with Dragan and to be able to bring his valuable work to publication.

Read a full Obituary published in The Guardian
 

'Arguably the most fertile and varied industry in world cinema, approaching Japanese cinema can be a daunting task. Even within the directory’s limited remit, it contains more films than any sane person could hope to watch in a lifetime. Cultural differences can also be a barrier, and the book acknowledges the difficulty for non-Japanese audiences in fully understanding genres such as Japanese New Wave, which may contain very cultural specific meanings. Still, the ‘alien’ is an aspect which always seems to get played up more with the Japanese than anywhere else. One of the book’s achievements is debunking Western assumptions of what Japanese cinema is, and lazy attempts to categorise it as weird and outlandish.'

'Berra, in his editor’s introduction, attributes much of the West’s association of Japanese cinema with strangeness and extremity, largely due to the J-Horror boom, which somewhat obscured both the burgeoning independent sector of contemporary Japanese cinema and its legacy. It illustrates the way in which the character of a country’s cinema can be condensed or plain misrepresented by market forces, culminating in recent fare like Machine Girl or Tokyo Gore Police. These are movies aimed primarily at international audiences, having little impact in their native country, and yet generally viewed in the West as somehow typical or representative of Japanese cinema.'

'As well as providing an insight into Japanese cultural life and history as expressed through the medium of film, this directory works equally well as a conventional film guide. Containing a mixture of the well known and obscure, there’s much to recommended for newcomers as well as those already well versed in the many delights of Japanese cinema. A worthwhile read and highly recommended. '

Read the full review from subtitledonline.com here...

Come meet Katherine Larsen, Principal Editor of Intellect’s forthcoming Journal of Fandom Studies, at the Popular Culture Association in the South conference in New Orleans.  Katherine will be at the JW Marriott New Orleans hotel on Canal Street, in the heart of the Big Easy, on Saturday, Oct. 8^th to introduce this exciting new journal to all culture aficionados and scholars on hand.  She’ll be answering questions from Noon to 2:30 PM at the Intellect exhibit. Come learn more about Fandom Studies, the first international juried journal focusing on the critical exploration of popular media and fan cultures, and speak with Katherine about submission guidelines.  And while you’re there, check out our ever-expanding popular culture portfolio of books and journals on display.

A major new book of essays edited by three Irish university lecturers attempts to explain the many complexities of iconic Manchester born singer Morrissey.  Published by Intellect Books, Morrissey: Fandom, Representations and Identities edited by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and Martin J. Power  from the University of Limerick, Ireland examines in detail, the work of one of the most influential songwriters of our time. The book’s subject has remained an anti-establishment and outspoken figure who has fought to bring controversial social issues to the forefront of our minds. Morrissey has used his music and his fame as vehicles for social change, singing and speaking out on a variety of issues: including class discrimination, ethnicity, sexuality, vegetarianism and animal rights, delivering his message in velvet sound-bytes and provocative performances. The book's chapters examine a diverse number of themes ranging from Morrissey's representation of working-class life; his own fan devotion concerning James Dean to painstaking analyses of songs such as 'Speedway' and 'You Have Killed Me'.  It also examines in detail how the regeneration of Manchester affected Morrissey in a deep and lasting way.

The Manchester launch of this important book will take place at Waterstones, Deansgate on Friday October 7th at 7pm.  The event will feature a panel with the book's editors and some of its contributors who will discuss Morrissey's hugely significant contribution to popular culture. The panel will be chaired by Dr. Holly Rogers (University of Liverpool) and the panellists will include Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane, Martin J. Power, Rachel Brett, Lee Brooks and Andrew Cope.

Special guests at Waterstones will be the Dublin band These Charming Men. Known as Morrissey's favourite tribute band, These Charming Men will play some of Morrissey's best known songs 'unplugged' in Waterstones.

Admission is free, but tickets may be reserved by calling Waterstones, Deansgate on 0161 837 3000.

For further information please contact James Campbell | james@intellectbooks.com

Editor Eoin Devereux will be interviewed later to-day (6pm UK time) on the 'Breakfast With The Smiths' show on Indie106 in Los Angeles.

Tuesday 4th of October will see the launch of the latest title from Intellect's Directory of World Cinema series. The volume focuses on Spain and offers an insight into Spanish national cinema through a series of reviews, essays and interviews covering mainstream films to experimental and less known material, while establishing the socio-political context.The presentation includes a discussion with the editor, Prof. Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos), film writer Almudena Escobar and other co-writers. The presentation will be followed by a wine reception. Copies of the book  will be available to purchase on the night of the event. Visit the London Spanish Film Festival for more details.

On a balmy Friday evening on London's South Bank, Intellect officially launched the World Film Locations book series. The launch event, which took place at the BFI's Blue Room, was a great success and we would like to thank everyone for coming along. Special thanks goes to the three special guest speakers, Scott Jordan Harris, Samira Ahmed and Gabriel Solomons, all of whom also contributed to the first four books in the series. We would also like to thank the BFI for all their help.

Books from the series are available to buy from all good bookshops and you can pick up a copy from the BFI Film Store or alternatively visit us online.