Books by William Brown
Introduction to The Squid Cinema from Hell: Kinoteuthis Infernalis and the Emergence of Chthulume... more Introduction to The Squid Cinema from Hell: Kinoteuthis Infernalis and the Emergence of Chthulumedia.
Introduction to my book, Non-Cinema: Global Digital Filmmaking and the Multitude.
This book offers up an innovative theoretical approach to contemporary digital cinema, looking at... more This book offers up an innovative theoretical approach to contemporary digital cinema, looking at how space, characters and time are presented in much mainstream cinema. The book also offers a chapter on the viewing of contemporary films. Drawing on film theory, film-philosophy, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and physics, Supercinema breaks ground in bridging the gap between the arts and sciences.
Human trafficking has always been a popular topic in cinema, with the film The Silent Traffic in ... more Human trafficking has always been a popular topic in cinema, with the film The Silent Traffic in Souls< promoting reform as early as 1913. Since then the idea of human trafficking has been revised at various times and within various contexts, as in the past decade, where the rise in migration and the demise of national borders have turned human traffic into one of the dominant narratives of contemporary cinema. This study focuses on the current cycle of films that play upon trafficking anxieties. Like their subject, these essays are transnational in nature, reflecting on films that depict white slavery, drug trafficking, and undocumented labor. The volume considers films by such internationally renowned directors as Amos Gitaï (Promised Land, 2004), the Dardenne Brothers (Lorna's Silence, 2008), Nick Broomfield (Ghosts, 2006), Michael Winterbottom (In This World, 2002), and Ulrich Seidl (Import/Export, 2002). A range of documentary and activist films are also examined, as well as examples from popular genres, such as Pierre Morel's Taken (2008) and Brad Anderson's Transsiberian (2008).
Other by William Brown
Book Chapters by William Brown
From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism (eds. Christine Daigle and Terrance McDonald), London: Bloomsbury, pp. 170-187., 2022
Filmmaker Alex Rivera writes that '[s]cience fiction in the past has always looked at Los Angeles... more Filmmaker Alex Rivera writes that '[s]cience fiction in the past has always looked at Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo. .. [but that w]e've never seen São Paulo, or Jakarta, or Mexico City. We've never seen the future of the rest of the world, which happens to be where the majority of humanity lives. ' 1 While Rivera suggests that the Global South does not feature in science fiction cinema, I shall in this chapter examine the way in which characters from the Global South do indeed feature in science fiction narratives, with the chapter focusing in particular on three films about artificial intelligence (AI) and which prominently feature characters of South Asian/Indian origin. These are Enthiran/The Robot (Shankar, India, 2010) and CHAPPiE(Neill Blomkamp, USA/ Mexico, 2015), which both also are set in the Global South (respectively in India and South Africa), with the US-based Short Circuit (John Badham, USA, 1986) providing a third example with which I shall engage briefly. The reasons for looking at films about AI that feature the relatively uncommon trope of South Asian/Indian characters are various and intertwined. First, it is my hypothesis that such films give expression to a phenomenon occulted in many/most other films about AI, namely that the global computing industry-both in terms of hardware and software-is upheld by (often invisible) labour carried out by 'subaltern' peoples from Asia and other parts of the world. Second, I wish to relate this 'return' of an otherwise repressed 'subaltern' contribution to our globalized economy to discourses of posthumanism. For, while there have historically been links between posthumanism and, for example, postcolonialist and subaltern discourses, these links have on the whole themselves undergone something of an occultation. As a result, strands of posthumanism-especially those that celebrate the would-be technological prowess of humanity in that we can, at least in fiction films, create intelligent life forms/AI-offer a Eurocentric (and thus all-too-human) understanding of what posthumanism is or might be. Finally, I wish to suggest that a 'posthumanism through Deleuze' might help us to get around such a Eurocentric conception of posthumanism, even though Gilles Deleuze himself is or was guilty of Eurocentric thought, especially in his considerations of cinema...
The Anthem Handbook of Screen Theory, 2018
In this essay, I shall offer a historical overview of cognitive approaches to film, before puttin... more In this essay, I shall offer a historical overview of cognitive approaches to film, before putting forward what to cognitive film theory might be an ‘heretical’ argument, in that I shall try to find ways in which cognitive film theory can work with, rather than against, more ‘classical’ film theory in order to enrich our understanding of cinema. I shall do this by looking at the concept of heuretics, as discussed by Christian Keathley in his book, Cinephilia and History, or The Wind in the Trees (2006). Before reaching this point, though, let us look at the history of cognitive film theory.
Nationalism in Contemporary Western European Cinema, 2018
This essay considers the role of real estate in the films of Ben Wheatley.
Screening Scarlett Johansson: Gender, Genre and Celebrity, 2019
Scarlett Johansson embodies Siegfried Kracauer’s understanding of stars as casting a ‘spell’ over... more Scarlett Johansson embodies Siegfried Kracauer’s understanding of stars as casting a ‘spell’ over audiences—as made clear by her performances as characters who themselves spellbind those who see her, including Kaa in the recent live-action remake of The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau, UK/USA, 2016) and the unnamed alien in Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK/USA/Switzerland/Poland, 2013). Scarlett Johansson is perhaps the desirable female film star of our moment, then, casting millions of people under a hypnotic, glamorous spell—‘taming’ even the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in various Avengers films, while being the object of desire in numerous others. For Kracauer, such a ‘spell’ can ‘only’ be explained ‘by the assumption that physical appearance satisfies the momentary but widespread desires of millions of people’ (Kracauer 2012: 203; italics in original). While Johansson’s physical appearance, which imposes itself upon each role that she creates, is indeed important, we disagree with Kracauer when he suggests that it ‘satisfies’ such ‘widespread desires,’ since this would suggest that these desires exist a priori to the viewer’s engagement with the film. To suggest that one can desire what one has not yet seen is no doubt evidence of the influence on Kracauer of psychoanalysis, which sees desire as based upon lack as it comes from the unconscious (since it is unconscious, we by definition lack conscious knowledge of what we desire). However, in this essay we shall adopt a more radical picture of desire (and desiring), suggesting that it operates through widespread (or a spread-wide assemblage of) ‘external’ bodies and pre-personal forces—and that Johansson’s film roles consciously reflect this, especially through their links with technology. That is, our desires are not ‘satisfied’ by movies and movie stars, but movies and movie stars inculcate and fashion our desires, functioning with audiences as what Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari might term ‘desiring-machines,’ which set themselves up as conduits and channels for the flows and circulation of capital in the modern world. In other words, desire does not originate from within, but through contact with ideological-affective machines like cinema and capitalism more generally. In this essay, we shall argue that the films of Scarlett Johansson regularly stage this process, her star image thus helping us to understand how what we are made to desire (including movies and movie stars themselves) is not always in our own self-interest, be that as individuals, as a species or as a planet—even if we might stubbornly fight for these desires as if they were not only our own, but also our salvation (see Deleuze and Guattari 2004: 31).
The Self- Portrait in the Moving Image, 2019
In this essay, I argue that the selfie involves a nuanced relationship between still and moving i... more In this essay, I argue that the selfie involves a nuanced relationship between still and moving images-in that most selfies are still images but that in some senses they involve a 'cinematic' logic that wishes to convey movement and by extension power. For, mobility is possible only for those who can afford it, with selfies also often being used to connote the wealth or the would-be wealth of the taker. The essay then goes on to consider how selfies involve a sexual component which draws out how the proliferation of selfies bespeaks a desire for us not to multiply as humans, but to multiply images and to multiply oneself in images. This in turn would reaffirm how in the contemporary era cinema is the measure of reality as opposed to reality being the measure of cinema.
Love Across the Atlantic: US-UK Romance in Popular Culture, 2020
Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) continues the account of the life of the eponymous diarist, as the fi... more Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) continues the account of the life of the eponymous diarist, as the film opens with Bridget (Renée Zellweger) turning forty-three, having aged only eleven years in the fifteen-year period since the franchise's first film, Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), in which Bridget was thirty-two. Single once again, Bridget none the less becomes pregnant after two one-night stands, one with American internet dating tycoon Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) and another with childhood friend and old flame Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Uncertain as to who the father is, Bridget allows both men to believe the child to be theirs, with both happy to prepare for parenting duties even after Bridget explains to both men her confusion over the father's identity at a meal at Gianni's, an Italian restaurant near Bridget's flat. A rivalry develops between Jack and Mark, with the former eventually losing out to the latter when Bridget grabs Mark's hand during the delivery of her child-a clear sign that he is the man for her rather than the result of pain-induced confusion. Although Jack is present at their wedding and clearly now a close friend, the film ends with Bridget marrying Mark, who also turns out to be the father of their son, William Jones-Darcy.
Reorienting Ozu: A Master and His Influence , 2018
Like many British filmmakers, Joanna Hogg started off working in televi- sion. Having in 1986 gra... more Like many British filmmakers, Joanna Hogg started off working in televi- sion. Having in 1986 graduated from the National Film and Television School, during the 1990s Hogg directed episodes of London Bridge (1996) and Casualty (1997–1998), before in 2003 making an extended episode of Eastenders about long-running character Dot Cotton (June Brown). Since 2007, Hogg has directed three feature films: Unrelated (2007), Archipelago (2010), and Exhibition (2013). These latter films will be the focus of this chap- ter, which tries to account for the influence on Hogg of Ozu Yasujiro. The chapter will also explore some fundamental differences between Hogg and Ozu—especially the seeming development from a sparse humanism in Ozu’s work toward a slow and more “posthumanist” aesthetic in Hogg’s. We can start our analysis of Ozu’s influence on Hogg, however, by the looking at the issue of influence itself.
New Configurations of Screen Space, 2020
In this essay, I argue that Life of Pi, Gravity, and Interstellar exemplify a cinema of entanglem... more In this essay, I argue that Life of Pi, Gravity, and Interstellar exemplify a cinema of entanglement. I do this by analyzing how the films' depictions of vast space are 'sublime', while also considering how these sublime moments are made using computer-generated imagery. This sublime is potentially paradoxical in that the images are computer-generated (i.e. 'fake'), while f ilm theorists have historically considered the awe inspired by cinema to depend upon the indexicality of the (analogue) image (i.e. cinematographic images depict something real, with that reality being separate from humans). However, drawing on Immanuel Kant's 'mathematical sublime' and Gilles Deleuze's 'powers of the false', I argue how these three films stage a sense not of sublime detachment but of sublime entanglement.
Creative Practice Research (In the Time of Neoliberal Hopelessness), 2020
This essay considers Thomas Elsaesser’s debut film, Die Sonneninsel/The Sun Island (Germany, 2017... more This essay considers Thomas Elsaesser’s debut film, Die Sonneninsel/The Sun Island (Germany, 2017), in particular in light of the concept of ‘tactical compliance’, which Elsaesser himself developed during his keynote paper, reproduced herein, at the Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness Conference at the University of Bedfordshire on 11 May 2018.1 The aim is to work through what tactical compliance might mean in the age of neoliberal hopelessness – and in some senses to take issue with the concept. I shall do this by situating The Sun Island within the context of Elsaesser’s own theoretical work, in particular his understanding of the so-called Persistence of Hollywood (2012), which itself springs perhaps from his contribution to Vivian Sobchack’s edited collection on The Persistence of History (1997). The aim is not to produce an ad hominem ‘attack’ on Elsaesser and his work, but to understand tactical compliance as a means towards persistence, while also relating persistence to systems of power. In other words, the ideas of Elsaesser will be linked to Elsaesser-as-idea (as author, as filmmaker), with no real concern for Elsaesser-as-man (if that is how he would define himself and/or if that is what Elsaesser is).
Creative Practice Research (In the Time of Neoliberal Hopelessness), 2020
In this essay, I shall describe the content and the delivery of a module (referred to in some ins... more In this essay, I shall describe the content and the delivery of a module (referred to in some institutions as a course or a unit) that I designed at my institution, called Guerrilla Filmmaking. The reasons for doing this are several. Since the module springs in some senses from my own theoretical research into and practice as a zero-budget filmmaker, Guerrilla Filmmaking exemplifies how to bridge practice and theory in the classroom, or, to put it in the language of this edited collection, how to teach practice-research. As the making of zero-budget films springs from the development of readily available digital technologies, the module also allows students themselves to bridge practice as research, in that the module involves the adoption of new media tech- nologies in order to explore their expressive possibilities, which also means that practice (for example, making films with smartphones) involves research (working out what sorts of film a smartphone can help to produce), which in turn helps to generate a theoretical understanding of what (in this example) smartphones mean. As we shall see, by exploring the expressive possibilities of new media technologies, students (and teachers) on the module begin to understand that they are not ‘inferior’ to conventional cinematic technologies, but simply different – a shift in outlook/theoretical thinking that the module conscientiously ties to a history of ‘imperfect’ cinema (both as a theory and as a practice), which shift itself is linked to a ‘decolonisation’ or a ‘liberation’ of thought in relation to film and perhaps to the world more generally. In order to understand how Guerrilla Filmmaking does this, though, let us begin with an overview of the module.
Third Cinema, World Cinema and Marxism, 2020
In this chapter, I shall analyse the films of Abderrahmane Sissako, suggesting that his work not ... more In this chapter, I shall analyse the films of Abderrahmane Sissako, suggesting that his work not only springs from a history of politically engaged Third Cinema but also constitutes what Gilles Deleuze (1989) might refer to as ‘modern political cinema’. Drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy (2007), I shall propose that the repeated emphasis in Sissako’s work on the faces of people who are listening suggests an ethical form of filmmaking absent from much ‘classical’ Third Cinema. Finally, I shall suggest that Sissako not only creates an African ‘people to come’ à la Deleuze but that, as per the Achille Mbembe quotation above, his films also picture the future of the whole of humanity – not least as a result of increasing water shortages and the expansion of the desert. In this way, Sissako’s film-philosophy challenges eurocentrism by demonstrating that African cinema is not simply ‘catching up’ with the cinemas of the First and Second Worlds but is perhaps the most profound cinema in the world, helping us to visualize the very future of humanity.
Sine ni Lav Diaz, 2021
This chapter looks at looks at the above film by Lav Diaz.
Lav Diaz does not make short films. Or rather, while we should acknowledge that Diaz has made re... more Lav Diaz does not make short films. Or rather, while we should acknowledge that Diaz has made relatively short, feature-length films – Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution (Elehiya sa dumalaw mula sa himagsikan, 2011) is only eighty minutes long – and while we should make clear that Diaz has even made short films ‘proper’ (Purgatorio, 2009, is a mere sixteen minutes), he is best known as a maker of long films. Most famous among these are West Side Avenue (Batang West Side, 2001, 315 minutes), Evolution of a Filipino Family (Ebolusyon ng isang pamilyang Pilipino, 2004, 660 minutes), Heremias (Heremias – Unang aklat: Ang alamat ng prinsesang bayawak, 2006, 540 minutes), Death in the Land of Encantos (Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto, 2007, 540 minutes), Century of Birthing (Siglo ng pagluluwal, 2011, 360 minutes), North, the End of History (Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan, 2013, 250 minutes), the recent From What is Before (Mula sa kung ano ang noon, 2014, 338 minutes), and, the focus of this chapter, Melancholia (2008, 450 minutes). In addition to making long films, however, Diaz also makes slow films, as I shall explain presently.
Eye-tracking studies of film (as well as eye-tracking studies in general) focus on seeing. In thi... more Eye-tracking studies of film (as well as eye-tracking studies in general) focus on seeing. In this chapter, I shall propose that the human visual system relies not just on seeing, but also on moments of not seeing. That is, I shall argue that moments in which we do not see are not 'fl aws' in a visual system that otherwise strives towards total vision. Rather, such 'fl aws' (moments of blindness) are crucial components of vision and what it means to be human more generally. I shall illustrate this need for temporary blindness by looking at three films that are comprised uniquely (or almost uniquely) of photographs, including Jonás Cuarón's Año uña/Year of the Nail (Mexico 2007), Chris Marker's La Jetée (France 1962) and Jean-Luc Godard's Je vous salue, Sarajevo (France 1993).
In this essay, I shall explore how the internet plays a key role at almost every stage of the lif... more In this essay, I shall explore how the internet plays a key role at almost every stage of the life of a contemporary film, in particular examining how and why amateur and independent filmmakers use film festival submission websites in order to find audiences for their films. My argument will be that amateur and independent filmmakers are encouraged to buy into the naturalised logic of wanting to become increasingly visible, or cinematic, and that they thus pay various sums of money to give their work a chance of garnering attention, for example at film festivals. Nonetheless, I shall examine how this competition in some senses always already favours existing professionals. In other words, while amateur and independent filmmakers pursue recognition at film festivals, typically in pursuit of becoming a professional, the essay will critique the exploitative nature of film festival submission websites, and what we might call the professionalisation of amateur filmmaking. That is, amateur filmmakers are encouraged to pay ever-greater sums of money in order to find audiences for their work, thereby contributing to the creation of what Maurizio Lazzarato has termed the 'indebted man' (Lazzarato 2012).
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Books by William Brown
Other by William Brown
Book Chapters by William Brown
a coherent story (see Shaviro, 2010).
Georgia to South Carolina to North Carolina to Tennessee to Indiana and so on), as well as specifically in the show through the formal properties of the audio-visual (cinematic/televisual) medium, which, with its cuts and movements, similarly keeps shifting through space and time in a nonlinear but generative fashion. Finally, I suggest that we cannot philosophise the plant or the medium of film (or television or streaming media) without philosophising race, with The Underground Railroad serving as a means for bringing together plants and plantations, soil and wormholes and Blackness and black holes, which, collectively and playfully, I group under the umbrella term ‘black (w)hole foods’.
to analyse Khavn de la Cruz’s Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between
A Criminal and A Whore (Philippines/Germany, 2014), arguing that the film critiques contemporary neoliberalism, as well as the central role that cinema plays in its globalisation. More than this, I shall show how Khavn’s film
also helps us to question and to refine our understanding of abjection and cosmopolitanism, in particular as these concepts have been used in combination — with political theorists using ‘abject cosmopolitanism’ as a framework to think about the role and condition of migrants and migration in the contemporary world (Nyers 2003).
There were many wonderful papers at each conference, as is perhaps to be expected, and so what follows may come across as an unnecessary criticism, in that I am going to discuss something that did not take place with any great regularity at either conference—even as I make mention of various papers that did take place at each conference.
What I am going to critique these conferences for is a relatively persistent absence of discussions of race, which for this essay I am going to define as genologophobia, meaning fear (φόβος/phóbos) of discussing (λόγος/logos) race (γένος/genos).
Independent Cinema: Rites of Passage and the Crisis
Image, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 184.
Key Features:
- Analyses several Asian films, including Japan's most famous monster movie Godzilla, the colourful Thai western Tears of the Black Tiger, the South Korean road movie Traces of Love, and the Iranian comedy The Lizard
- Discusses American film noir, recent European art films such as Red Road and The Lives of Others and Hollywood CGI Blockbusters including Hellboy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Includes a dedicated chapter on the animated documentary Waltz with Bashir
- Studies a host of different directors, from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Baz Luhrmann