Del 0 - Eastern European Screen Cultures

Useful Cinema in State Socialist Europe

Nyhet

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

AvLucie Česálková,Christian Ferencz-Flatz,Ana Szel

2 919 kr

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Useful Cinema in State Socialist Europe offers a ground-breaking exploration of “useful” film production across Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the wider socialist world from the postwar period to the late Cold War. Moving beyond economically driven models of commissioned filmmaking dominant in the West, it shows how socialist cinema was shaped instead by the ideological power of representation and self-representation, positioning film at the heart of political and cultural governance.Rejecting any notion of a unified socialist cinema, the chapters reveal a diverse field of practices - educational, instructional, research, safety, promotional, and amateur films - produced within complex institutional and party frameworks. Drawing on internationally significant and topical case studies from both well-known and underexplored national contexts, the book demonstrates how these films simultaneously served centralized political agendas and developed distinct regional and national dynamics. With its interdisciplinary approach and extensive engagement with archival and audiovisual sources, this book makes a major intervention in Film and Media Studies it brings marginal, functional, and non-fiction film forms into the centre of scholarly debate.A major intervention in Film and Media Studies, this book will appeal to researchers in the field as well as and Communication, Archival and Audiovisual Heritage Studies, International and Political Studies, Slavic and East European Studies.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-09-08
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieEastern European Screen Cultures
Antal sidor336
FörlagPallas Publications
ISBN9789048564033

Tillhör följande kategorier

Film inom Kultur
Medievetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Socialhistoria och kulturhistoria inom Historia och arkeologi

Lucie Česálková is an Associate Professor at the Department of Film Studies, Charles University, Czech Republic. In her research, she focuses on the history of nonfiction cinema and the history of non-commercial film exhibition and moviegoing. She co-edited, with Johannes Praetorius-Rhein, Perrine Val and Paolo Villa, a volume Non-Fiction Cinema in Postwar Europe. Visual Culture and the Reconstruction of Public Space (2024).Christian Ferencz-Flatz is a philosopher and media scholar, working as a lecturer at the National University of Theatre and Film, Hungary. His research concerns phenomenology, critical theory, state socialist history of ideas, film- and media philosophy. He published the monograph Critical Theory and Phenomenology. Polemics, Appropriations, Perspectives (2023).Ana Szel is an archivist, curator, and PhD candidate at the National University of Theatre and Film, Hungary. Her research focuses on useful cinema and marginal film practices, with a particular interest in early cinema and film as an interdisciplinary field. She published Atheist Education and Popular Science Film in Socialist Romania (2025).

ContentsIntroductionPlanned, but Fickle. Useful Films of Socialist EuropeLucie Česálková, Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Ana SzelPart 1: Media Infrastructures and International RelationsUseful Cinema as a Challenge to the State-Socialist Mode of Film ProductionLucie ČesálkováBetween Useful and Useless. Small Gauge and Amateur Film in Socialist HungaryEszter PolonyiAuthentic, Technically Proficient, and Non-aligned. The Delineating of Good Amateur Film and Successful Amateur Cinema in Yugoslav Festival Regulations and ReportsHanna SteinFrom “That’s ORWO” to “Low-key – Made in the GDR”. Trends in East German Export Advertising Films from the 1950s to the 1980sRalf ForsterMigration, Geopolitics, and Underdevelopment. Sensitive Topics in Socialist Romanian Tourist AdvertisementsChristian Ferencz-FlatzPart 2: Righting Wrongs, Averting DangersUseful Film and Photography in the Investigation of War Crimes in the USSR (1942–1945). Historical Paths, Practices of the VisualIrina TchernevaIn the Department Store. Genres and Socialist Consumer Culture in Hungarian Feature and Police Educational Films in the 1950sLászló StrauszDangerous Spaces. Workplace Safety Film in Socialist Romania between Occupational Hazards and State RegulationsAna SzelActions in the Event of an Atomic Catastrophe during the Cold War. Civil Defense Films at Riga Film StudioZane BalčusPart 3: Educating People, Shaping Life and EnvironmentA Safe Haven at the Teachers’ Vault. The Educational Film in Late 1940s PolandKonrad Klejsa, Emil SowińskiFrom Land Cultivation to Cultivation of Viewers. Soviet Agricultural Films within Agitprop SystemVictoria ElizarovaLife is Movement, Yet Cinema is Death. The Biological Films of Karol MarczakMichał MatuszewskiEnvironmental Animation under Socialism. A Multifunctional FormatJana Rogoff