There are many movies. There are many cinema traditions on the world. There are many online film magazines. Some are academic, some are cineastic. Now, manycinemas is born and we are proud that we’ve launched this journal. From nowadays onwards, manycinemas will accompany the discussion on film from the view of the “subaltern cinema traditions”, to give them a voice, and to create a theoretical background for their development. Our foci are the cinema-traditions next to the Western world, meaning Asia,
Africa, and Latin America, but we are open for other interesting articles on minor cinema traditions.
Introduction to the topic urban/rural. The article explores the relationship between cinema, city and village.
As India becomes increasingly imbricated in the global economy, a new genre of Hindi cinema interrogates the liminal, "in-between" spaces between villages and cities. The author analyzes Shyam Benegal’s recent films, Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008) and Well Done Abba! (2009) in order to unravel the unstable, unpredictable, and often outlandish processes of vernacular modernization presented in these comic satires.
In the prospering city of Chennai thousands of migrant workers are hired by agents of the big department stores. They move from their villages to the city where they live in own communities. In Angaditheru, film director Vasanthabalan
depicts their living conditions and shows how they live in a rural society within a big department store and on the adjacent market street. Despite of the urban environment they have limited contact to the city dweller. Here the film creates a sphere in-between urban and rural.
The article analyzes three popular films which focus on different (fictive and non-fictive) slums: Bombay, Johannesburg, and Rio de Janeiro. The author explores Agamben’s theory of biopolitics and his concept of “der Muselmann” concerning the living conditions of the slum dwellers. He shows how these films deal with the aspect that these groups are subject to constant reprisals.
The article explores the interplay between history and personal stories in Cristian Nemescu's film California Dreamin' (Endless) and discusses the idea of an American dream as seen from a post-Communist Romanian village.
We are welcoming Jim Libiran to our first interview. His film Tribu we saw at the Berlinale Filmfestival 2008. Now we are very happy that he has answered our questions in such detail. Jim Diamond M. Libiran is one of Philippines best-known directors. As actors he uses real-life characters. In Tribu (2007), he recruited 52 gang leaders to act in this critically-acclaimed gangland film. In Happyland (2010) he cast a real football team.
Beyond the Screen invites the reader to have a look beyond the silver screen. It includes topics which are loosely connected with film, like performance, music, dance, visual culture, literature, or television. These ties should not be too vague and the article ought to be somehow connected with the cinema. We start with a journey to the cinema buildings of South India.Closings
Our next Issue will be released in autumn. We have collected interesting
articles from all over the world on the topic TRAVELLING! Holiday,
business, private matters. There are several reasons for travelling.
People undertake a journey to places, strange and not familiar to them.
How
do they act or behave in an unfamiliar environment and how does it take
an impact on them? And, cinema is close connected with travelling. It
is a window to the world, both real and imaginary. The lights turn off
and pictures appear which bring you to places far away.
We invite
you, to travel with us to some places our authors want to show you.
From metaphysics to real, travels in Asia and Africa. We’re curious
about it.
The next call for papers (for our third issue) will
appear in late summer. We will look for topics on DREAD, GHOST, SPECTER,
and POSSESSION and if you cannot await, the 4th Issue will dedicate
itself to LOVE. But don’t hurry, we will inform you here on our webpage!
We wish you the best
the editors: Michael Christopher & Helen Staufer
