Synopses & Reviews
The history of cinema charts multiple histories of exile. From the German émigrés in 1930s Hollywood to today's Iranian filmmakers in Europe and the United States, these histories continue to exert a profound influence on the evolution of cinematic narratives and aesthetics. But while the effect of exile and diaspora on film practice has been fruitfully explored from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the issues raised by return, whether literal or metaphorical, have yet to be fully considered.
Cinematic Homecomings expands upon existing studies of transnational cinema by addressing the questions raised by reverse migration and the return home in a variety of historical and national contexts, from postcolonialism to post-Communism. By looking beyond exile, the contributors offer a multidirectional perspective on the relationship between migration, mobility, and transnational cinema. 'Narratives of return' are among the most popular themes of the contemporary cinema of countries ranging from Morocco to Cuba to the Soviet Union. This speaks to both the sociocultural reality of reverse migration and to its significance on the imagination of the nation.
About the Author
Rebecca Prime is the Libman Professor of the Humanities at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, USA. She specializes in the fields of transnational film history and aesthetics with emphasis on cross-cultural studies of postwar American and European cinema. Her book, Intimate Strangers: Blacklisted Filmmakers in Postwar Europe, is forthcoming. Her work has been published in Film History: An International Journal, Film Studies: An International Review, Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities, and the edited volume, "Un-American" Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era (2007). In 2006, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Advanced Student Fellowship for France.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction -
Rebecca Prime, Hood College, USAI. Transatlantic Modes of Production
Come Back to Erin: Themes of Exile and Return in the “O'Kalem” Films
Peter Flynn, Emerson College, USAAlexander Korda and Peter Lorre: Central European Exile and the Illusion of Return
Catherine Portuges, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USAFrom Blacklists to Black Films: The Hollywood Radicals Return Home
Rebecca Prime, Hood College, USAII. Nostalgic Visions, Imagined Homelands
Between Longing and Belonging: Diasporic Return in Contemporary South Korean Cinema
We Jung Yi, New York University, USAThree Ages of Russian Nostalgia:
Nostalgia,
Window to Paris, and
Brother 2Milla Federova, Georgetown University, USABeyond Return in Turkish Diasporic Cinema
Silvia Kratzer, UCLA, Chapman University, Pepperdine University, USAIII. Exilic Subjectivity and the Politics of Return
Staying Home: Cuban Exile Film from Within
Mariana Johnson, University of North Carolina-Wilmington, USA Chilean Exile Cinema and its Homecoming Documentaries
José Miguel Palacios, New York University, USA Burning Straw Men: The 1979 Revolution and Bahman Farmanara's Stubborn Cosmopolitanism
Matthew Holtmeier, Western Washington University, USAIV. Re-visioning the Past
Returning to Rubble: Fritz Kortner's
The Last IllusionMartina Moeller, Université Mohammed V in Rabat, MoroccoHealing Journeys: Return as Therapy in
Walk on WaterIdo Ramati, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelV. The Roving Gaze
Narratives of Return in the Films of Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Diop
Malini Guha, Carleton University, CanadaSleeping with Strangers: Queering Home and Identity in
I Don't Want to Sleep AloneKai-man Chang, Tulane University, USAA Moroccan Homecoming: The Fabulation of Family and Home in Izza Génini's
Retrouver Oulad MoumenStefanie Van de Peer, University of Stirling, UK Zero Degrees of Separation: Post-Exilic Return in Denis Villeneuve's
IncendiesClaudia Kotte, Humboldt University, GermanyAfterword -
Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews, UK Contributors
Index