I am a graduate of Keele University (BA Hons) and the University of Glasgow (MPhil, PhD). I joined the Film Studies Department at Queen Mary University of London in 2006. My research explores the relationship between film/photography and cultural memory within a US context, with a particular focus on the war film and representations of 9/11. I am currently working on a project with the title Peace Cinema.
Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigel... more Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), relates to different, and competing, versions of US national identity in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book combines readings of individual films (World Trade Center, United 93, Fahrenheit 9/11, Loose Change) and cycles of films (depicting revenge, conspiracy, torture and war) with extended commentary on recurring themes, including the relationship between the US and the rest of the world, narratives of therapeutic recovery, questions of ethical obligation.The volume argues that post-9/11 cinema is varied and dynamic, registering shock and upheaval in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, displaying capacity for critique following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal mid-decade, and seeking to reestablish consensus during Obama’s troubled second term of office.
And here are a couple of reviews: Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
This dictionary covers all aspects of film studies, including terms, concepts, debates, and movem... more This dictionary covers all aspects of film studies, including terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism, national, international and transnational cinemas, film history, film movements and genres, film industry organizations and practices, and key technical terms and concepts in 500 detailed entries. Most entries also feature recommendations for further reading and a large number also have web links. The web links are listed and regularly updated on a companion website that complements the printed book. The book also includes indexes of the films and filmmakers mentioned throughout the text. The dictionary is international in its approach, covering national cinemas, genres, and film movements from around the world such as the Nouvelle Vague, Latin American cinema, the Latsploitation film, Bollywood, Yiddish cinema, the spaghetti western, and World cinema. The most up-to-date dictionary of its kind available, this is a must-have for all students of film studies and ancillary subjects, as well as an informative read for cinephiles and for anyone with an interest in films and film criticism.
An introduction to the Hollywood war film, a linchpin in the American cultural imagination of war... more An introduction to the Hollywood war film, a linchpin in the American cultural imagination of war throughout the twentieth century. The book considers the history of the war film genre, one of continuing significance, from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to We Were Soldiers (2002), focusing in particular on representations of the Vietnam War and the more recent return to and reexamination of the Second World War.
Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigel... more Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), relates to different, and competing, versions of US national identity in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book combines readings of individual films (World Trade Center, United 93, Fahrenheit 9/11, Loose Change) and cycles of films (depicting revenge, conspiracy, torture and war) with extended commentary on recurring themes, including the relationship between the US and the rest of the world, narratives of therapeutic recovery, questions of ethical obligation.The volume argues that post-9/11 cinema is varied and dynamic, registering shock and upheaval in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, displaying capacity for critique following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal mid-decade, and seeking to reestablish consensus during Obama’s troubled second term of office. Hear me talking about this book: http://newbooksinfilm.com/2015/01/13/guy-westwell-parallel-lines-post-911-american-cinema-wallflower-press-2014/ And here are a couple of reviews: Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870 Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
This article examines how the experience of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks has prompted ... more This article examines how the experience of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks has prompted both a hardening of a narrow version of US national identity figured in prejudicial terms and, conversely, an increased willingness to explore difference as it occurs both within the US (i.e. in the relations between Americans) and abroad (i.e. in the relations between Americans and foreigners). Through close textual analysis of two feature films – 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002) and Rendition (Gavin Hood, 2007) – this article profiles this increased willingness to explore difference as it is indexed in both the form and content of the films under discussion.
This paper takes as its starting point two philosophical statements related to film’s ability to ... more This paper takes as its starting point two philosophical statements related to film’s ability to resist war. The first, by New Left philosopher Paul Goodman and titled ‘Designing pacifist films’ (1961), insists that certain strict formal parameters should be followed by any filmmaker with pacifist ambitions ( Goodman 2011 ). The second, Alisa LeBow’s ‘The unwar film’, calls for a formal unsettling of both generic and formal conventions ( Lebow 2015 ). The philosophical claims made in these two papers will be brought to bear on two films, Vapor Trail (2010), a 264 min. documentary that focuses on the history of a US military base in the Philippines, and Far from Afghanistan (2012), a Kickstarter-funded portmanteau film modeled on Jean Luc-Godard et al ’s Loin du Vietnam/Far From Vietnam (1967). I will focus on how these films, through clever innovation with film form and style, seek to unsettle the conventional stylistic and formal devices used to depict the experience of war. I will...
... CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING Tudor Gates ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells WOMEN&a... more ... CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING Tudor Gates ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells WOMEN'S CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison Butler BRITISH ... I am indebted to Mark Bed-ford, John Gillot, Debora Marietta and Suzi Westwell for finding time in their ...
This chapter examines how the Hollywood war film accommodates and contains religious pacifism. Th... more This chapter examines how the Hollywood war film accommodates and contains religious pacifism. Through comparison of Sergeant York (1941) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016), both of which tell the stories of religious pacifists who find themselves on the battlefield, this chapter describes how each film shows the transgressive nature of religious pacifism and puts in place containment strategies that seek to recuperate this radical anti-war belief system. I argue that in spite of this ideological recuperation the films still retain a strong sympathetic view of this form of pacifism, and that this testifies to the possibility that the audience is suspicious of the dominant pro-war narrative and may even desire an alternative, more pacific view of the world.
Over 550 entries This dictionary covers all aspects of its discipline as it is currently taught a... more Over 550 entries This dictionary covers all aspects of its discipline as it is currently taught at undergraduate level. Offering exhaustive and authoritative coverage, this A-Z is written by experts in the field and covers terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism; national, international, and transnational cinemas; film history, movements, and genres; film industry organizations and practices; and key technical terms and concepts. Since its first publication in 2012, the dictionary has been updated to incorporate over 40 new entries, including computer games and film, disability, ecocinema, identity, portmanteau film, Practice as Research, and film in Vietnam. Moreover, numerous revisions have been made to existing entries to account for developments in the discipline, and changes to film institutions more generally.
ABSTRACT This article describes a project titled Mapping Contemporary Cinema (MCC) that forms par... more ABSTRACT This article describes a project titled Mapping Contemporary Cinema (MCC) that forms part of the final year undergraduate curriculum in a film studies programme at a UK Russell Group university. The project is a distinct and innovative synthesis of critical pedagogy with research-based learning and is here considered in the light of Gert Biesta’s educational thinking. The article first glosses the concepts of critical pedagogy and research-based learning, and how they relate to Biesta’s work. There follows a description of the setting up of the project and an account of its development and execution between 2011 and 2017; this description continues to call on Biesta and is interspersed with discussion of practical and theoretical issues stemming from the blending of the two approaches. The article concludes that critical pedagogy and research-based learning are complementary and share commonalities, especially a concern with generative learning.
footage sounds like war, or what we know of war from the cinema, so it must be war, and like cine... more footage sounds like war, or what we know of war from the cinema, so it must be war, and like cinema the drama and pacing of the narrative keep us firmly attached to our seats in front of the television’ (p. 159). Regarding what is erased from the lived experience of war, Harris considers her own choice to present the debrief of a group of soldiers with a series of long takes, deliberately making the sequence fairly tedious. ‘I was trying to show the event as a bureaucratic accounting for bullets and bodies spent, where the matter-of-fact attitude of soldiers towards their job of killing was as much a part of war as the drama of the killing and the fighting’ (p. 162). The upshot of the discussion is that, with both examples, Harris argues that ‘questions about what sort of war these soldiers are fighting, their reasons for fighting (other than survival) and the reasons behind the engagement of the Iraqi militia are not considered’ (p. 165). Amid the actual conflict acted out on the battlefield, there is another battle ever-raging: between objective truth and that which must be edited down for a primetime audience. While by no means a thoroughgoing review, this brief discussion should afford some insight into the potential value of this volume. This value will be most keenly felt by researchers interested in cinematic representations of war and conflict, and what must be removed from such representations. This removal could be purely practical, as in the case studies discussed by Harris, or it could be ideological as discussed by Goldstein and others throughout the collection. Regardless, such volumes justify and reinforce the constant need for critical attention on the images and films that emerge from and around conflict: such attention ensures that questions are consistently asked of those responsible for such conflict and the suffering and erasures that inevitably ensue.
Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigel... more Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), relates to different, and competing, versions of US national identity in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book combines readings of individual films (World Trade Center, United 93, Fahrenheit 9/11, Loose Change) and cycles of films (depicting revenge, conspiracy, torture and war) with extended commentary on recurring themes, including the relationship between the US and the rest of the world, narratives of therapeutic recovery, questions of ethical obligation.The volume argues that post-9/11 cinema is varied and dynamic, registering shock and upheaval in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, displaying capacity for critique following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal mid-decade, and seeking to reestablish consensus during Obama’s troubled second term of office.
And here are a couple of reviews: Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
This dictionary covers all aspects of film studies, including terms, concepts, debates, and movem... more This dictionary covers all aspects of film studies, including terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism, national, international and transnational cinemas, film history, film movements and genres, film industry organizations and practices, and key technical terms and concepts in 500 detailed entries. Most entries also feature recommendations for further reading and a large number also have web links. The web links are listed and regularly updated on a companion website that complements the printed book. The book also includes indexes of the films and filmmakers mentioned throughout the text. The dictionary is international in its approach, covering national cinemas, genres, and film movements from around the world such as the Nouvelle Vague, Latin American cinema, the Latsploitation film, Bollywood, Yiddish cinema, the spaghetti western, and World cinema. The most up-to-date dictionary of its kind available, this is a must-have for all students of film studies and ancillary subjects, as well as an informative read for cinephiles and for anyone with an interest in films and film criticism.
An introduction to the Hollywood war film, a linchpin in the American cultural imagination of war... more An introduction to the Hollywood war film, a linchpin in the American cultural imagination of war throughout the twentieth century. The book considers the history of the war film genre, one of continuing significance, from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to We Were Soldiers (2002), focusing in particular on representations of the Vietnam War and the more recent return to and reexamination of the Second World War.
Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigel... more Parallel Lines describes how post-9/11 cinema, from Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002) to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), relates to different, and competing, versions of US national identity in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book combines readings of individual films (World Trade Center, United 93, Fahrenheit 9/11, Loose Change) and cycles of films (depicting revenge, conspiracy, torture and war) with extended commentary on recurring themes, including the relationship between the US and the rest of the world, narratives of therapeutic recovery, questions of ethical obligation.The volume argues that post-9/11 cinema is varied and dynamic, registering shock and upheaval in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, displaying capacity for critique following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal mid-decade, and seeking to reestablish consensus during Obama’s troubled second term of office. Hear me talking about this book: http://newbooksinfilm.com/2015/01/13/guy-westwell-parallel-lines-post-911-american-cinema-wallflower-press-2014/ And here are a couple of reviews: Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870 Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
This article examines how the experience of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks has prompted ... more This article examines how the experience of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks has prompted both a hardening of a narrow version of US national identity figured in prejudicial terms and, conversely, an increased willingness to explore difference as it occurs both within the US (i.e. in the relations between Americans) and abroad (i.e. in the relations between Americans and foreigners). Through close textual analysis of two feature films – 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002) and Rendition (Gavin Hood, 2007) – this article profiles this increased willingness to explore difference as it is indexed in both the form and content of the films under discussion.
This paper takes as its starting point two philosophical statements related to film’s ability to ... more This paper takes as its starting point two philosophical statements related to film’s ability to resist war. The first, by New Left philosopher Paul Goodman and titled ‘Designing pacifist films’ (1961), insists that certain strict formal parameters should be followed by any filmmaker with pacifist ambitions ( Goodman 2011 ). The second, Alisa LeBow’s ‘The unwar film’, calls for a formal unsettling of both generic and formal conventions ( Lebow 2015 ). The philosophical claims made in these two papers will be brought to bear on two films, Vapor Trail (2010), a 264 min. documentary that focuses on the history of a US military base in the Philippines, and Far from Afghanistan (2012), a Kickstarter-funded portmanteau film modeled on Jean Luc-Godard et al ’s Loin du Vietnam/Far From Vietnam (1967). I will focus on how these films, through clever innovation with film form and style, seek to unsettle the conventional stylistic and formal devices used to depict the experience of war. I will...
... CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING Tudor Gates ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells WOMEN&a... more ... CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING Tudor Gates ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells WOMEN'S CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison Butler BRITISH ... I am indebted to Mark Bed-ford, John Gillot, Debora Marietta and Suzi Westwell for finding time in their ...
This chapter examines how the Hollywood war film accommodates and contains religious pacifism. Th... more This chapter examines how the Hollywood war film accommodates and contains religious pacifism. Through comparison of Sergeant York (1941) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016), both of which tell the stories of religious pacifists who find themselves on the battlefield, this chapter describes how each film shows the transgressive nature of religious pacifism and puts in place containment strategies that seek to recuperate this radical anti-war belief system. I argue that in spite of this ideological recuperation the films still retain a strong sympathetic view of this form of pacifism, and that this testifies to the possibility that the audience is suspicious of the dominant pro-war narrative and may even desire an alternative, more pacific view of the world.
Over 550 entries This dictionary covers all aspects of its discipline as it is currently taught a... more Over 550 entries This dictionary covers all aspects of its discipline as it is currently taught at undergraduate level. Offering exhaustive and authoritative coverage, this A-Z is written by experts in the field and covers terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism; national, international, and transnational cinemas; film history, movements, and genres; film industry organizations and practices; and key technical terms and concepts. Since its first publication in 2012, the dictionary has been updated to incorporate over 40 new entries, including computer games and film, disability, ecocinema, identity, portmanteau film, Practice as Research, and film in Vietnam. Moreover, numerous revisions have been made to existing entries to account for developments in the discipline, and changes to film institutions more generally.
ABSTRACT This article describes a project titled Mapping Contemporary Cinema (MCC) that forms par... more ABSTRACT This article describes a project titled Mapping Contemporary Cinema (MCC) that forms part of the final year undergraduate curriculum in a film studies programme at a UK Russell Group university. The project is a distinct and innovative synthesis of critical pedagogy with research-based learning and is here considered in the light of Gert Biesta’s educational thinking. The article first glosses the concepts of critical pedagogy and research-based learning, and how they relate to Biesta’s work. There follows a description of the setting up of the project and an account of its development and execution between 2011 and 2017; this description continues to call on Biesta and is interspersed with discussion of practical and theoretical issues stemming from the blending of the two approaches. The article concludes that critical pedagogy and research-based learning are complementary and share commonalities, especially a concern with generative learning.
footage sounds like war, or what we know of war from the cinema, so it must be war, and like cine... more footage sounds like war, or what we know of war from the cinema, so it must be war, and like cinema the drama and pacing of the narrative keep us firmly attached to our seats in front of the television’ (p. 159). Regarding what is erased from the lived experience of war, Harris considers her own choice to present the debrief of a group of soldiers with a series of long takes, deliberately making the sequence fairly tedious. ‘I was trying to show the event as a bureaucratic accounting for bullets and bodies spent, where the matter-of-fact attitude of soldiers towards their job of killing was as much a part of war as the drama of the killing and the fighting’ (p. 162). The upshot of the discussion is that, with both examples, Harris argues that ‘questions about what sort of war these soldiers are fighting, their reasons for fighting (other than survival) and the reasons behind the engagement of the Iraqi militia are not considered’ (p. 165). Amid the actual conflict acted out on the battlefield, there is another battle ever-raging: between objective truth and that which must be edited down for a primetime audience. While by no means a thoroughgoing review, this brief discussion should afford some insight into the potential value of this volume. This value will be most keenly felt by researchers interested in cinematic representations of war and conflict, and what must be removed from such representations. This removal could be purely practical, as in the case studies discussed by Harris, or it could be ideological as discussed by Goldstein and others throughout the collection. Regardless, such volumes justify and reinforce the constant need for critical attention on the images and films that emerge from and around conflict: such attention ensures that questions are consistently asked of those responsible for such conflict and the suffering and erasures that inevitably ensue.
in Terence McSweeney, ed., American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11
This article begins by providing context for the iconic photograph ‘The Falling Man’, which shows... more This article begins by providing context for the iconic photograph ‘The Falling Man’, which shows a single figure falling from the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. It describes how the initial extremely restricted but varied experience of seeing people falling from the Twin Towers gave way to a single image: a photograph by veteran Associated Press photographer Robert Drew which has become known as ‘The Falling Man’. This photograph has been the subject of consider- able debate, especially in relation to trauma, national identity and aesthetics. In what follows, this debate is used to describe how ‘The Falling Man’ photograph gives structure to two mainstream Hollywood films: Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close (Stephen Daldry, US, 2011) and The Walk (Robert Zemeckis, US, 2015). A particular focus will be how this photograph is placed to different ends within classically constructed narratives that seek some semblance of order and resolution and also made subject to the full animating resources of the moving image. This movement – from a photograph recording a fraction of a second to a conventional narrative of longer duration, and from still photograph to moving image – enables both films to seek different forms of redemption via what Thomas Stubblefield describes as ‘the cathartic power of the fall’.
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Hear me talking about this book: http://newbooksinfilm.com/2015/01/13/guy-westwell-parallel-lines-post-911-american-cinema-wallflower-press-2014/
And here are a couple of reviews:
Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
Hear me talking about this book: http://newbooksinfilm.com/2015/01/13/guy-westwell-parallel-lines-post-911-american-cinema-wallflower-press-2014/
And here are a couple of reviews:
Alberto Zambenedetti (2016) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema, Continuum, 30:2, 262-265, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1141870
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Journal of American Studies / Volume 50 / Issue 02 / May 2016, DOI: 10.1017/S0021875816000372
Available here: http://www.oxfordreference.com/page/yorkshire-film
Available here: http://blog.oup.com/2012/09/sight-sound-2012-poll-greatest-film/
Available here: https://theconversation.com/unbroken-tries-but-fails-to-reassure-during-difficult-times-35708
Available here: http://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/guy-westwell--2