Films That Work Harder

Vinzenz Hediger is professor of cinema studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he directs the Graduate Research Training Program Configurations of film (www.konfigrationen-des-films.de). His publications include Films that Work. Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media (Amsterdam University Press 2009, with Patrick Vonderau) and Essays zur Filmphilosophie (Fink 2015, with Lorenz Engell, Oliver Fahle and Christiane Voss). He is a co-founder of NECS – European Network of Cinema and Media Studies (www.necs.org) and the founding editor of Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft (www.zfmedienwissenschaft.de) Florian Hoof is currently Professor of Media Systems and Media Organization at Paderborn University. He is the author of Angels of Efficiency. A Media History of Consulting (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-author of Culture, Technology, and Process in ‘Media Theories’: Toward a Shift in the Understanding of Media in Organizational Research. In: >cite>Organization, 2019, Vol. 26(5), http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508419855702. Yvonne Zimmermann is Professor of Media Studies at Philipps-University Marburg. Recent books include the co-authored Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures>/cite> (AUP 2021) and the co-edited Films That Work Harder: The Global Circulations of Industrial Cinema (AUP 2023). She is the editor of a special issue on Asta Nielsen, the film star system and the introduction of the long feature film in Early Popular Visual Culture (2021). Scott Anthony is currently Deputy Head of Research & Public History at the Science Museum Group. His books include Shell: Art and Advertising (2021), Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain (2012), The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit (2011) and Night Mail (2007). The Story of Propaganda Film (2024) is forthcoming with BFI/Bloomsbury.

• Introduction: A sequel, and a shift – Vinzenz Hediger, Florian Hoof, Yvonne Zimmermann Section 1 : Networks and Flows: Visualizing Value Chains Vinzenz Hediger: The Aesthetics of the Global Value Chain. Container Shipping, Media Networks and the Problem of Visibility in the Global Sphere of Circulation Lee Grieveson: Object Lessons and Infrastructural Imperialism Thomas Turnbull: Energy and Industrial Film: energo-critical registers Florian Hoof: The Afterlife of Industrial Film: Weak Dispositives, Choice Architecture, and the Contemporary Circulation of Industrial Cinema Section 2: Operative Iconographies, Industry and the Nation State Ira Plein: Beautiful Luxembourg, Steel Works, and a Swimming Pool. The Corporate Film Columeta and the Formation of a Corporate and a National Image. Lucie Cesalkova: Hydropower for a Sealess Nation. Representation of Water Energy in Czech Visual Culture Zimmer: Modern Water Sprites. History, Nature, and Landscape in Vattenfall’s Film Production in the 1950s Takuya Tsunoda: Taxonomy of Techniques: Visions of Industrial Cinema in Postwar Japan Yvonne Zimmermann: The Power of Flows: The Spatiality of Industrial Films on Hydropower in Switzerland Section 3: Institutions and Distribution Frameworks: Archives, Festivals, Fairs Steve Foxon: Industry on Screen: The British Documentary in Distribution. British Transport Films – A Case Study Brian Jacobson: On the Red Carpet in Rouen: Industrial Film Festivals and a World Community of Film Makers Haidee Wasson: Cinema and Industrial Design: Showmanship, Fairs and the Exhibition Film. Section 4: Teaching Oneself and Others Gregory A. Waller: Putting Films to Work: System, The Magazine for Business Charles Acland: New Media for the Schools of Tomorrow. The A.V. Instructional Films of Robert W. Wagner Guillherme Machado: We Must Know More than We Can See: Databases of Vocational Training and the Emergence of Cognitive Ergonomics Scott Anthony: Free enterprise film: Aims of Industry, economic propaganda and the development of a neoliberal cinema Section 5: Post/Colonial Industries and Third Industrial Cinemas Rudmer Canjels: Framing Local and International Sentiments and Sounds. Unilever and Royal Dutch Shell in a Changing Nigeria. Tom Rice: Working Through the End of Empire Ravi Vasudevan: Cinema-going on the Railway Tracks: Transportation, Circulation and Exhibition of Information Film in Colonial India Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky: The Latin American Process Film. Section 6 : Production Cultures and/of the Industrial Film: Amateurs and Professionals Maria Vinogradova: Soviet Industrial Film Across Categories: Negotiating Between Utility, Art and Science Luca Peretti: “There exists no life more daring and adventuresome than that of an oil drigger”. Alexander Stark: Industrial Film from the Home Studio: Amateur Cinema and Low Budget Corporate Moving Image Culture in West Germany, from 1950 – 1977 Anna Maria Falchero: Movie and Industry in Italy: The “Golden Age” of Italian Industrial Documentary (1950-1970) Alain Michel: A Film that Doesn’t Seem to Work: A Shot of Renault’s Early Assembly Line (1920 to 1929). A Case Study, Methodology and 3D Restitution for Film Analysis Section 7: Ephemeral Artistry: Ecologies of Authorship in Industrial Cinema Christian Bonah: Business and Art: Pharmaceutical Industries, Film Production and Circulation, and the French Film Production Company ScienceFilm, 1960-1980. Patrick Russell: Transfer of Power: films officers in the British coal industry Martin Stollery: Saudi Arabia’s John Ford? Robert Yarnall Richie, Desert Venture and Ephemeral Authorship in Industrial Film. Annette Davison: Sounds Industrial: Understanding the Contribution of Music and Sound in Industrial Films Alessandro Cecchi: Creative Films for Creative Corporations.