Researching Newsreels: Local, National and Transnational Case Studies

Description

This volume addresses the underscrutinised topic of cinema newsreels. These short, multi-themed newsfilms, usually accompanied by explanatory intertitles or voiceovers, were a central part of the filmgoing experience around the world from 1910 through the late 1960s, and in many cases even later. As the only source of moving image news available before the widespread advent of television, newsreels are important social documents, recording what the general public was told and shown about the events and personalities of the day. Often disregarded as quirky or trivial, they were heavily utilised as propaganda vehicles, offering insights into the socio-political norms reflected in cinema during the first half of the twentieth century. The book presents a range of current research being undertaken in newsreel studies internationally and makes a case for a reconsideration of the importance of newsreels in the wider landscape of film history. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (Ciara Chambers, Mats Jönsson, Roel Vande Winkel)....Pages 1-13 Wofull Newes from Wales: Details at 11. News, Newsreels, Bulletins and Documentaries (Brian Winston)....Pages 15-33 The Newsreel Audience (Luke McKernan)....Pages 35-49 Around the World: The First Norwegian Newsreel, 1930–1941 (Rolf Werenskjold)....Pages 51-75 The Commentary Makes the Difference: An Analysis of the Suez War in East and West German Newsreels, 1956 (Kay Hoffmann)....Pages 77-92 Martin Luther King’s Assassination in Spain’s NO-DOs and in Bulgaria’s Kinopregledi (Lyubomir Pozharliev, Danae Gallo González)....Pages 93-117 Matrices for Non-Fiction: Dziga Vertov and the Kino-Nedelia Newsreels (John MacKay)....Pages 119-141 More Than Goebbels Bargained For: Nazi Newsreel Dissemination in Occupied Denmark and the Golden Age of Danish Documentary (Lars-Martin Sørensen)....Pages 143-155 Screening War and Peace: Newsreel Pragmatism in Neutral Sweden, September 1939 and May 1945 (Åsa Bergström, Mats Jönsson)....Pages 157-182 The Legal Settlement and Reconstruction in the Norwegian Newsreel Norsk Filmrevy, 1945–1949 (Idar Flo)....Pages 183-201 Advertising and Self-Reference in the West German Newsreel Neue Deutsche Wochenschau in the 1950s and 1960s (Sigrun Lehnert)....Pages 203-230 Newsreel Production, Distribution and Exhibition in Belgium, 1908–1994 (Roel Vande Winkel, Daniel Biltereyst)....Pages 231-246 Researching the Issued Content of American Newsreels (Scott L. Althaus, Kylee Britzman)....Pages 247-263 The Irish Question: Newsreels and National Identity (Ciara Chambers)....Pages 265-283 If You Build It, Will They Come? Researching British Newsreels (Linda Kaye)....Pages 285-300 Back Matter ....Pages 301-309