Screening Nature : Cinema Beyond the Human

Environmentalism and ecology are areas of rapid growth in academia and society at large. __Screening Nature__ is the first comprehensive work that groups together the wide range of concerns in the field of cinema and the environment, and what could be termed “posthuman cinema.” It comprises key readings that highlight the centrality of nature and nonhuman animals to the cinematic medium, and to the language and institution of film. The book offers a fresh and timely intervention into contemporary film theory through a focus on the nonhuman environment as principal register in many filmic texts. __Screening Nature__ offers an extensive resource for teachers, undergraduate students, and more advanced scholars on the intersections between the natural world and the worlds of film. It emphasizes the cross-cultural and geographically diverse relevance of the topic of cinema ecology. Introduction: intersecting ecology and film / Anat Pick and Guinevere Narraway Eco-poetics: film, form, and the natural world. Three worlds: dwelling and worldhood on screen / Anat Pick Ten skies, 13 lakes, 15 pools: structure, immanence and eco-aesthetics in The swimmer and James Benning's land films / Silke Panse Land as protagonist: an interview with James Benning / Silke Panse Zoe-tropes: envisioning the nonhuman. Anthropomorphism and its vicissitudes: reflections on homme-sick cinema / James Leo Cahill Animism and the performative realist cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul / May Adol Ingawanij Was blind but now I see: animal liberation documentaries' deconstruction of barriers to witnessing injustice / Carrie Packwood Freeman and Scott Tulloch Filming the frozen south: animals in early Antarctic exploration films / Elizabeth Leane and Stephen Nicol Eco-politics: environment, image, ideology. Dirty pictures: framing pollution and desire in "new new queer cinema" / Sophie Mayer Utopia in the mud: nature and landscape in the Soviet science fiction film / Elana Gomel Animals, avatars and the gendering of nature / Claire Molloy Buried land: filming the Bosnian pyramids / Steven Eastwood and Geoffrey Alan Rhodes Eco-praxis: film as environmental practice. Strange seeing: re-viewing nature in the films of Rose Lowder / Guinevere Narraway The art of self-emptying and ecological integration: Bae Yong-Kyun's Why has Bodhidharma left for the East? / Chia-ju Chang An inconvenient truth: science and argumentation in the expository documentary film / David Ingram Planet in focus: environmental film festivals / Kay Armatage. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction. Intersecting Ecology and Film PART I. ECO-POETICS: FILM, FORM AND THE NATURAL WORLD 1. Three Worlds: Dwelling and Worldhood on Screen 2. Ten Skies, 13 Lakes, 15 Pools – Structure, Immanence and Ecoaesthetics in The Swimmer and James Benning’s Land Films 3. Land as Protagonist – An Interview with James Benning PART II. ZOE--TROPES: ENVISIONING THE NONHUMAN 4. Anthropomorphism and Its Vicissitudes: Reflections on Homme-sick Cinema 5. Animism and the Performative Realist Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul 6. Was Blind But Now I See: Animal Liberation Documentaries’ Deconstruction of Barriers to Witnessing Injustice 7. Filming the Frozen South: Animals in Early Antarctic Exploration Films PART III. ECO-POLITICS: ENVIRONMENT, IMAGE, IDEOLOGY 8. Dirty Pictures: Framing Pollution and Desire in ‘new New Queer Cinema’ 9. Utopia in the Mud: Nature and Landscape in the Soviet Science Fiction Film 10. Animals, Avatars and the Gendering of Nature 11. Buried Land: Filming the Bosnian Pyramids PART IV. ECO-PRAXIS: FILM AS ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE 12. Strange Seeing: Re-viewing Nature in the Films of Rose Lowder 13. The Art of Self-emptying and Ecological Integration: Bae Yong-kyun’s Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East? 14. An Inconvenient Truth: Science and Argumentation in the Expository Documentary Film 15. Planet in Focus: Environmental Film Festivals Notes on Contributors Index Environmentalism and ecology are areas of rapid growth in academia and society at large. This is a comprehensive work that groups together the wide range of concerns in the field of cinema and the environment, and what could be termed 'posthuman cinema.' It comprises key readings that highlight the centrality of nature and nonhuman animals to the cinematic medium, and to the language and institution of film.