This thesis begins by examining the factors that have resulted in the dependent nature of Canada's political and economic structure, and proceeds to examine how this has contributed to the cultural amorphousness of English Canadian identity. The hegemonic authority of American and trans-national interests, established and maintained in the cultural sphere through the extensive monopoly of the distribution of cultural and media products, perpetuates the amorphousness of English Canadian culture through the appropriation of Canadian space by the international image industry. Such categorization of Canadian space reflects and perpetuates the imaginary representation of Canada within the dominant ideology as an indistinct and amorphous entity, and comes to usurp the materiality that constructs the lived identities of English Canadians.

This project is an interrogation of three examples from recent popular culture of girlculture, specifically texts that target young female consumers: the Spice Girls, Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These examples are fundamentally different than texts from earlier female targeted generic models because they not only reflect the influence of the feminist movement, they work on feminism's behalf. The project's methodology grows out of feminist film theories and cultural studies theories. One chapter is dedicated to each text, and each reading works to reappropriate girlculture texts for a counter-hegemonic agenda by highlighting the moments when each text manages to subvert its mass mediated conservative biases.

This written thesis accompanies a sixteen-minute documentary video, Harbor, in which the filmmaker explores her relationship with her father who has suffered a stroke. Detailed accounts of the pre-production, production and post-production of the video allow the reader to understand the challenging and rewarding process of making an autobiographical documentary. Theoretical issues are also discussed, including the validity, criticisms, artistic nature and ethical concerns of autobiographical filmmaking. The filmmaker stresses the universality of her story, and how, despite the film's very personal nature, it is applicable for anyone who has dealt with the illness and/or disability of a parent.

As the written accompaniment for The Luxury of Tears, a twelve-minute documentary video exploring the emotional impact of sexual assault on male survivors and their partners, this document examines the visual texts of both the fiction and nonfiction genres. Specifically, I contend that fiction film manufactures male survivorship with regard to rape events in such manner which contributes to the thematization of social silence. Such silence perpetuates the feminization of rape as a social problem, and dissolves the development of male survivor resources. A discussion of production processes, challenges, and resolutions is included.

This study explores the reasons for the rise in independent film's popularity, which have created a unique Hollywood phenomenon, the successful "mini-major" independent studio, dedicated to both art and commerce. Chapters cover the history of independent film, characteristics of both independent and mainstreamfilms with regards to financing, acquisition, distribution and marketing, trends within independent film in the late 1980s and 1990s, crucial distributors and landmark independent films, and key growth areas in the future for independent film.

The emphasis of this research is on the social, economic, and cultural factors generating the New Taiwan Cinema between 1982 to 1986. The study consists of four chapters. Chapter I introduces the background and parameters of the topic. Chapter II discusses the factors which nurtured the rise of New Taiwan Cinema. It also provides historical background information on Taiwanese films. Chapter III discusses the definition and characteristics of New Taiwan Cinema and its major filmmakers and films. Chapter IV focuses on the issue of the end of New Taiwan Cinema. This chapter also covers the general situation of the Taiwanese film industry after 1986.

The thesis explores how Grant Tinker's philosophy of quality programming grew into a working ideology which would serve as the basis for its rise from last place to first place in ratings and profits from 1978 to 1986. This thesis paper explores the prime time history of NBC from 1978 to 1986. The network is examined in terms of its programming history, its economic situation, and the men who presided over the entity, all within the time frame listed above. The thesis focuses on the strategies and philosophies of the three men crucial to the direction the network took during the above time frame: Fred Silverman, President of the network from 1978 to 1981, Grant Tinker, Chairman from 1981 to 1986, and Brandon Tartikoff, Programming Chief from 1980 to 1991.

The film is about three young Korean-American adults who have adapted to American society while retaining certain aspects of Korean culture in their lives. To expose their intermingled behaviors and concepts, the film combines the observational format of a documentary with an information style employing family photos, home movie recordings, and interviews with the three subjects and their families. An accompanying production report describes the research process, pre-production, production, and post-production.

The Town Where Mickey Mouse Has Lived is a documentary video program in which people talk about themselves and the life of a small town. The town is known as the boyhood home of Walt Disney, which he recalled as the most charming place in his life. The interviews explore the personal perspectives of the people and why they stay in Marceline despite the fact that Disneyland, full of Disney's memories of Marceline, attracts people while the town has been obsolescent for a long time.

When the filmed version of The Last Temptation of Christ was released in the United States, it met with significant protests from conservative Christians who felt it was blasphemous. Using the controversy surrounding the film and its reception in Austin, Texas, this is a case study in censorship as a social process and in the cultural conflict it signifies. Certain societal factors must converge to create an art controversy. Through an examination of the film, the groups involved in the protest, and the social and political climate at the time, some of these factors are described. Imbedded in this controversy are the underlying tensions that permeate many modern cultural debates: shifting ideas of the sacred and the profane and definitions of moral authority.

Martin Scorsese's films, GOODFELLAS and CASINO, and Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION are examined to determine if the crime film of the 1990s has become increasingly more in the style of film noir. The differences and similarities between the two crime films each director has either written or co-written in the 1990s are delineated to demonstrate this trend. Other crime films of the latter 1990s (SEVEN, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and MULHOLLAND FALLS) are also examined to aid in defining the latest incarnation of the crime film as "Noir Modernist," a term that is demonstrated to be a more accurate description for the current crime films than B. Ruby Rich's, "Neo-Noir of the 1990s."

Screenplay for animated feature film. Story and characters are based on a short novel, The Adventures of Hank the Cowdog. first in a series. This adaptation aims to translate the humor and unique dog-centered perspective of the original source into the medium of film. Hank the Cowdog, head of security on an isolated ranch, works undercover inside a pack of coyotes to solve a series of chicken murders. To solve the case, Hank defends his ranch, sheep and chickens from a devious and powerful coyote leader, Scraunch. With help from a variety of friends and a change in attitude, Hank saves the ranch. Screenplay places detective film conventions in an action-adventure cartoon format. Thesis includes notes on adaptation process.

The purpose of this study is (1) to examine mainstream studio films and their marketing (2) to examine independent films and their marketing (3) to explore the marketing challenges of independent films (4) to explore new developments in independent film and the emergence of crossover films (5) to explore the benefits of alliances between the major studios and independent film distributors (6) to examine the diminishing differences between major studio films and independent films.

Disturbing the Peace is a short, 16mm sync-sound fiction film. Alone one stormy night, a woman must contend with an intruder breaking into her home. The intruder turns out to be a teenage boy. He claims to have broken in only to retrieve a family heirloom he hid there when he and his parents lived in the same house years ago. When the boy finds the heirloom, the woman begins to believe his story, and soon realizes he doesn't have a good home life. The boy asks permission to stay until the storm breaks. She agrees. Should the boy be trusted, or is he telling one lie after another? The police arrive to witness the outcome of the story.

The Acres Homes Transit Company in Houston, Texas is Texas' first African American owned and operated bus company. Some say it is the first in the South. The company was developed during the height of the civil rights period. It serves as an establishment of economic empowerment during the oppressive civil rights era. The video is a historical visual documentation of the bus company from its beginning to its end. An accompanying written profile describes the research process, the pre-production, production and post-production stages, as well as future proposals for the documentary.

Over the past decade, cinema studies scholars have begun to recognize the value of mythographical methodologies for motion picture analysis; however, most of the scholarly research in this field has focused either on mythic archetypal images or on monomythic narrative structure, rather than combining the two approaches into a unified theory. This essay addresses the problem by proposing a mythographical methodology of motion picture analysis based on Carl Jung's theory of archetypal images and Joseph Campbell's theories concerning the monomythic structure of heroic narratives. Combining the two approaches of myth interpretation results in a more comprehensive methodology for interpreting the mythic elements of motion pictures. This essay illustrates the application of this methodology through a detailed analysis of Terry Gilliam's film, The Fisher King.

This study tested American television effects on Taiwanese Students in uncertainty reduction and stereotype forming. The study consisted of a questionnaire analysis and a focus group discussion. Fifty-five subjects responded to the questionnaires and twenty of them joined two group discussions.

This study focused on the televisual and cultural practices of Iranians via public access television in Dallas, Texas. It includes analysis of format and content. It combines demographic, structural, and statistical information with a culturalist and interpretive viewpoint in examining the efforts of Iranians, via access television programs, in preserving their culture and the formation of a coherent and active community in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

This study focuses on the relationship between Western transnational broadcasters and East Asian media. It analyzes 1) the processes through which Western media players are localized and 2) the impact of media globalization on local broadcasters in East Asia. Recent developments in the People's Republic of China are the primary focus in the discussion of local media.

Post Time is a non-fiction video program depicting some of the careers found at North American horse race tracks. Through the use of videotaped footage taken at eight race tracks and three training farms, the horse racing industry's trainers, jockeys, owners and grooms are profiled in the world they call the backstretch. The video begins with a brief history of horse racing and the origins of thoroughbred horses followed by closer examinations of the economic and social experiences faced by the owners, trainers, jockeys, and grooms as they attempt to prepare horses for racing every week.

This thesis explores the films produced by leftist filmmakers of the 1930s which reflect the contemporary urban life in Shanghai.

Turnabout, a feature-length screenplay with an accompanying critical essay, is the story of Michael Houston, a successful stockbroker in his late twenties whose unlikely romantic rendezvous with a bohemian art dealer leads him to realize that finding love often begins with a soul-searching journey into oneself.

In many respects, the popular 1960's television series, The Fugitive perfectly captured the swelling disillusionment with authority, alienation, and discontent that soon encompassed American society. This historical/critical study provides a broad overview of the economic, social, and political climate that surrounded the creation of The Fugitive. The primary focus of this study is the analysis of five discursive topics (individualism, marriage, justice & authority, professionalism, science and technology) within selected episodes and to show how they relate to broader cultural debates which occurred at that time. Finally, this study argues that The Fugitive is a part of a television adventure subgenre which we may classify as the contemporary "wanderer-hero" narrative and traces its evolution through selected television series from the last three decades.

This is a reflexive documentary on the Open School in Los Angeles, an elementary school which is a field research site for Apple Computer, Inc. This videotape explores filmmaker/subject relationships, media perception by children, and issues of representation. An accompanying production book describes the grantwriting process, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages, as well as theoretical implications of the documentary.