Newsreels and Cinemagazines

Este artigo argumenta, assumindo uma perspectiva geopolítica, sobre o papel dos media cinematográficos como arma ideológica, política e cultural durante o período da Guerra Fria. Uma primeira abordagem, pretende esclarecer o conceito de geopolítica através de quatro dos seus aspectos. O artigo aborda, depois, os formatos e materializações da propaganda americana, nos primeiros anos, com a ascensão dos newsreels e o seu papel como garante psicológico da resistência ao comunismo.
De seguida, são analisados os anos da segunda metade da Guerra Fria, revelando a ascensão dos géneros cinematográficos da espionagem e vigilância e o seu papel na formação da identidade nacionalista, na geração do herói americano e na inscrição social da ideologia capitalista.
A relação estratégica entre a indústria do cinema de Hollywood e as várias administrações americanas do período da Guerra Fria fica, assim, demonstrada, caracterizando-se como uma verdadeira rede comercial multinacional e com influências em vários países, especialmente na Europa, traduzindo-se na hegemonia cultural americana dos nossos dias.

This article argues, in a geopolitical perspective, on the role of cinematographic media as an ideological, political and cultural weapon during the Cold War period. The first approach tries to clarify the concept of geopolitics through four of its aspects. The article addresses, then, the formats and representations of the American propaganda in the early years, with the rise of newsreels and their role as guarantor of psychological resistance to communism.
Next, we analyse the years of the second half of the Cold War, revealing the rise of the film genres of espionage and surveillance and their role in forging nationalist identity, the rise of the American hero and the social inscription of capitalist ideology.
The strategic relationship between Hollywood film industry and the various American administrations of the Cold War period is thus demonstrated, being characterised as a true multinational commercial network influencing several countries, mainly in Europe, into nowadays American cultural hegemony.

The cinematographic and photographic production generated during the Spanish Civil War is one of the most striking aspects of the intense media and propaganda fight that this conflict unleashed. We know a lot of the historical circumstances in which these productions were developed, but the technical and formal mechanisms with which they were made have hardly been investigated. Neither have the intense relations and transfers that were established between cinema and photography, starting with the similarity of looks and the use of common tools, have been considered. These aspects are decisive, since the Spanish war put to test new systems of production that completely transformed the way of narrate and watch the events. The study of these elements would allow to evaluate the scope of all this production as historical document. This article proposes to start this methodological and research perspective.

La producción cinematográfica y fotográfica generada durante la Guerra Civil española es uno de los aspectos más llamativos del intenso combate mediático y propagandístico que este conflicto desató. Conocemos en buena medida las circunstancias históricas en las que estas producciones se desarrollaron, pero apenas se han investigado los mecanismos técnicos y formales con los que fueron realizadas. Tampoco se han planteado las intensas relaciones y trasvases que se establecieron entre el cine y la fotografía, empezando por la similitud de miradas y la utilización de herramientas comunes. Estos aspectos son decisivos, puesto que la guerra española puso a prueba nuevos sistemas de producción que transformaron por completo la forma de narrar y mirar los acontecimientos. El estudio de estos elementos permitiría evaluar el alcance de toda esta producción como documento histórico. Este artículo propone iniciar esta perspectiva metodológica e investigadora.

Media syndicate William Randolph Hearst utilized fictionalized and dramatized newsreel accounts in order to sway American public opinion in support of military action during the Mexican Revolution. Hearst's primary motive was his radical belief in American exceptionalism in regards to hard power hegemony in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Definitive military action was taken when the United States authorized the Pershing Expedition into Chihuahua in 1916.

https://www.history.ac.uk/publications/ihr-books-series/new-historical-perspectives/family-firm-monarchy-media-and-british-public-1932-53

The Family Firm presents the first major analysis of the public projection and reception of the British monarchy’s media image in the period 1932-1953. Beginning with King George V’s first Christmas broadcast in 1932, the royal household worked with the Church of England and the media to initiate a new phase in the House of Windsor’s public relations strategy. Together they elevated the royal family’s domesticity as a focal point for popular identification and this strengthened the emotional connections that members of the public forged with royalty. The Family Firm shows how the tightening of these bonds had a unifying effect on British national life in the unstable years during and either side of the Second World War and helped to restore public confidence in a Crown that was profoundly shaken by the 1936 Abdication Crisis.

In the emerging 'video-first world' of the last decade, global fashion brands have made the moving image an integral component of their digital marketing strategies. As a result, both the industry and popular perceptions of fashion film have been increasingly colonized by the notions of branding and promotion. Recent scholarship on fashion film too has put the fashion brand at the centre of analysis. This article argues against any such premature fixing of fashion film's identity. Instead, it proposes shifting the existing perspective by reframing fashion film as not only a product of the fashion industry and associated media but also one of the cinema industry and culture. Drawing on media archaeological models of 'excavation' and 'parallax historiography', the article examines contemporary digital fashion film in parallel with fashion film of the early 20th century-a juxtaposition that helps to recapture the phenomenon's remarkable diversity and open possibility in both periods.

Dai primissimi anni del Novecento, il cinema e la fotografia divennero tra i mezzi più popolari per rappresentare le terre d’oltremare nei centri metropolitani. "Vedere l’impero" ricostruisce organicamente l’intreccio tra storia dell’espansionismo, politiche culturali e rappresentazioni foto- cinematografiche delle colonie italiane, focalizzandosi sulla produzione dell’Istituto Luce ma abbracciando vicende e immagini prodotte prima, durante e dopo il ventennio fascista. Le fascinazioni esotiche dei primi filmati “dal vero” girati in Africa, i resoconti sulle esplorazioni scientifiche, la propaganda del regime e infine le rappresentazioni della fine dell’impero ci racconteranno di incontri e scontri tra culture, ma anche di contenuti parziali e razzisti. La mole di documenti analizzati e l’originalità delle riflessioni rendono il saggio un riferimento per riflettere sull’asservimento delle idee e delle immagini alla necessità di definire un’alterità funzionale alla costruzione dell’identità nazionale.

This article provides introductory remarks on the concept of ‘alterity,’ which could stimulate the discussion on newsreels/media and their representation of the Other. Starting from the observation that ‘alterity’ has often been overshadowed by an overestimation of ‘identity,’ the article differentiates between various fields of ‘alterity’: amongst them, ‘real alterity’ in societal practice, ‘representational alterity’ in media contexts, and attitudes of ‘othering’ in movements between alterity or alienness. It critically brings to the fore some underlying frameworks and unspoken assumptions. Finally, the article asks whether the positioning of alterity in 20th-century newsreels has provided first approaches for overcoming its binary corset in the direction of a global circulation of images. Can this perhaps be seen as a step towards turning our attention to a revaluation and new recognition of the Other?

The video series of original British Pathé News, gives an illusioned feeling as handling the captured world history. British Royal family also, has a large part in the stage of popular history captured in these videos. Royal family perpetuates her symbolic image with the help of her ceremonical public life. This ceremonical existence is supported in the early days of radio and newsreels to be followed by television and video. The members of the Royal family adapted their lives to the new electronical media in time. Today the images of Royal family -with an ironical or/and moderate distance- are taken in a quite similar way of all the other mediatic people i.e. pop stars, soap opera characters on the British television channells. I find it is worth studying on the mediatic "living legend" identity of the British Royal family in the way in which it is appeared on the newsreels of 1930's onwards. A part of the video cassette collection of the British Pathé News (1930-1960) is the material of this study.

El título de este ensayo alude a dos manifestaciones culturales experimentales, de vanguardia en torno al Congreso Cultural de La Habana de enero de 1968: la exposición Del Tercer Mundo, una intervención colectiva realizada en el Pabellón Cuba de la Rampa, y el noticiero cinematográfico (luego documental) sobre el Congreso, titulado La hora de los hornos y dirigido por Santiago Álvarez. En este sentido, el título podría considerarse literal, porque me propongo analizar cómo incorporó el noticiero las imágenes de esa exposición (También otras expresiones de la cultura visual cubana). Al mismo tiempo, junto al subtítulo (Internacionalismo y Vanguardia) se refieren al sentido histórico de ambas producciones así como del mismo Congreso: en torno al lugar del Tercer Mundo en esos años que Ernesto Che Guevara (citando a José Martí) había propuesto como una “hora de los hornos”. A partir de investigaciones que recuperaron el Congreso Cultural y la exposición Del Tercer Mundo, se facilita el abordaje de La hora de los hornos (cubana) en estas páginas.
De este modo, primero recorreré algunos aspectos generales del Congreso Cultural en relación con la presencia allí de la dirigencia del cine cubano (I) y comentaré los rasgos principales de la exposición del Tercer Mundo (II). Luego me detendré en el análisis de cómo el noticiero incorpora las imágenes de la exposición así como numeroso y variado footage de archivos propios y ajenos, que intentaré identificar (III). Finalmente, contextualizaré ambas manifestaciones culturales en el momento atravesado por la cultura visual cubana y mencionaré el diálogo de este noticiero y su director con eventos artísticos y culturales inmediatamente previos, para concluir por qué –desde mi punto de vista- La hora de los hornos reconoce particularidades dentro del conjunto de la obra de Santiago Álvarez (IV y V).

La versión definitiva de este ensayo será publicada en 2022, en el libro con las ponencias del Simposio internacional "Rethinking Conceptualism: Avant-Garde, Activism and Politics in Latin American Art (1960s-1980s)”, organizado por Katerina Valdivia Bruch en marzo de 2021 desde Berlín.

Molti degli autori che hanno scritto sulla storia del fumetto, si sono sbizzarriti a cercarne le origini in manifestazioni grafiche d'ogni sorta. Lo scopo sembrava quello di radicare quest'arte povera, che si manifesta su supporti effimeri, cestinabili, in una tradizione tributaria della storia dell'arte, andando a cercare lontani e nobili parenti fra i personaggi della Colonna Traiana, dei geroglifici egiziani, o addirittura fra i bisonti della grotta di Lascaux. Se alcuni lavori di letteratura disegnata, realizzati già nei primi decenni del XIX secolo (penso a Tôpffer in primo luogo) si avvicinano al fumetto, bisogna a nostro aviso considerare quest'ultimo come una delle caratteristiche di quel sistema di comunicazioni di massa che si mette in moto solo verso l'inizio degli anni 1880. Ciô vuol dire che il fumetto, e non solo quello americano, è legato alle trasformazioni sociali e tecnologiche frutto della rivoluzione industriale, e ha dunque molto più da spartire con i coevi media di massa che con antiche rappresentazioni grafiche più o meno narrative. Come in Europa, anche in America i primi fumetti (fumetti in senso stretto) appaiono solo alla fine dell'Ottocento. Durante i primi anni non hanno nemmeno un supporto specifico e trovano spazio tra le pagine dei quotidiani: si tratta delle comic strips. La conic strip petmette al fumetto di sperimentare generi e personaggi destinad a durare a lungo (Mandrake, I'Uomo mascherato, Agente segreto X-9); ma gli imporrà anche la dipendenza dalla stampa d'informazione, chelo relegherà al rango di semplice ingrediente della complessa ricetta che compone un giornale, Controllate dai potenti syndicates, queste storielle disegnate vengono vendute per abbonamento a varie testate americane ed estere, insieme ai cruciverba ed altri prodotti simili. Un mercato che finisce per essere ben regolamentato e nel quale niente è possibile senza l'accordo di un syndicate. Il. aemic book, nellasua forma di volumetto, è, più che una reinvenzione del genere, una dichiarazione d'indi-pendenza. E sarà precisamente questo affrancarsi dal supporto più "serio" della stampa che permetterà al fumetto americano di esplorare fino in fondo alcune soluzioni naffative e visuali che precedentemente non avevafatto altro che sfiorare. A prova di quanto affetmato, è interessante notare che l'arrivo del genere dei supereroi, coincide precisamente con l'arrivo a maturazione del comic book come nuovo supporto del fumetto

From the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, and over the next two decades, arose great efforts in Ireland to augment political independence from Britain with enhanced cultural separation. During this period the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) enjoyed a boom in numbers of players and supporters, thus confirming hurling and Gaelic football as the definitively Irish national games and the association itself as the most popular mass movement for the expression of independent Irish identity. Yet paradoxically, given the popular association of Gaelic games with Irish independence, nearly all footage of these games from that time was produced by foreign companies with a strong British bias. This article will focus primarily on the coverage of Pathé, a leading newsreel company in this period, through an examination of the content of relevant films in the online digital archive of British Pathé, and will explore the conditions of their production and reception in Ireland, including by the GAA, which was usually wary of portrayals in the British media.

This essay centres on how filmic and media representations of colonial Asmara resounded in contemporary documentaries on postcolonial Italy (namely Aulò and Asmarina). In doing so, I engaged two main theoretical standpoints: I try to assess to what extent directors use old material (mainly produced by the Istituto Luce) to evoke old colonial rhetoric; then I address the dialogue between old and new images as originating representation in which Asmara emerges as an heterotopic space.
To carry on such investigation, the essay provides a brief overview of the role of the fascist colonial propaganda, with a specific attention paid to the institutional organisation that produced and spread fascist film in the Horn of Africa (the Reparto Africa Orientale of the Istituto LUCE).

Если размышлять о советском кино как об индустрии, судьба украинской студии кинохроники во время войны (1941–1945) показательна с двух точек зрения. С одной стороны, Украина находилась на самой линии фронта, и потому работавшие там киностудии на своем опыте столкнулись со всеми тяготами эвакуации, возвращения потерянных территорий и послевоенного восстановления. С другой – история украинской студии позволяет понять, как в организации кинематографической отрасли в годы Великой Отечественной войны национальное начало сочеталось с советским.
En poursuivant la réflexion sur le cinéma soviétique comme industrie, le destin des studios d’actualités d’Ukraine présente un double intérêt du point de vue de la guerre qui se déroule de 1941 à 1945 : d’une part, l’Ukraine est une fois de plus sur la ligne de front et ses studios sont confrontés aux problématiques d’évacuation, de reconquête et de reconstruction ; d’autre part, le destin d’un studio ukrainien interroge l’articulation du national et du soviétique dans l’organisation de la branche cinématographique pendant la « grande guerre patriotique ».

Resumo
Em 1989, quando a Europa se transformava com a Queda do Muro de Berlim e a expansão das comunicações via satélite, surge La
Sept, o canal de televisão franco-alemão. Histoire Paralèlle, programa apresentado por Marc Ferro com os cinejornais veiculados
nos dois países, 50 anos antes, se torna o programa de maior audiência da emissora, confrontando nas imagens os modos como
alemães e franceses construíram a guerra, tal como deveria ser vista e vivida por seus concidadãos. O programa tornou-se um exercício
socializado de compreensão e reescritura histórica, além de se colocar diante do conflito entre memória e história, questão que
norteou a historiografia dos anos 1990. Este artigo analisa Histoire Paralèlle, observando a relação que estabeleceu com a produção
historiográfica e fílmica do historiador. Para tanto, seus pressupostos teóricos são rediscutidos e historicizados à luz das obras de
Ferro e por meio da análise de três dos seus programas.
Palavras-chave: Cinema; História; Marc Ferro; cinejornais.
La construcción de la historia en la televisión: Marc Ferro y los cine-noticiarios en Histoire Parallèle
Resumen
En 1989, cuando la Europa se transformaba con la caída del Muro de Berlín y la expansión de las comunicaciones por satélite surge
La Sept, el canal de televisión franco-alemán. Histoire Paralèlle, un programa presentado por Marc Ferro con los cine-noticiarios
vehiculados en ambos países, 50 años antes, se convierte en el programa más visto de la emisora, comparando por las imágenes las
formas en que alemanes y franceses concibieron la guerra, tal como debería ser vista y vivida por sus conciudadanos. El programa
se ha convertido en un ejercicio socializado de comprensión y reescritura histórica, además de estar delante del conflicto entre la
memoria y la historia, una cuestión que guio la historiografía de la década de 1990. Este artículo analiza Histoire Parallèle, observando
la relación que se establece con la producción historiográfica y fílmica del historiador. Por lo tanto, sus supuestos teóricos se rediscuten
y contextualizan a la luz de las obras de Ferro y mediante el análisis de tres de sus programas.
Palabras clave: Cine; Historia; Marc Ferro; cine-noticiarios.
Constructing history on television: Marc Ferro and newsreels in Histoire Parallèle
Abstract
In 1989, when Europe was being transformed after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expansion of satellite communications, La
Sept, a Franco-German TV channel, came into being. Histoire Paralèlle, a TV show hosted by Marc Ferro with newsreels shown
in both countries, 50 years before, became the most watched program of the station, comparing the images the ways in which
German and French started the war, as it should be seen and experienced by their fellow citizens. The program became a socialized
process of understanding and historical rewriting, besides standing before the conflict between memory and history, a question
that guided the historiography of the 1990s. This article analyzes Histoire Paralèlle, examining the relationship that it established
with the historiography and filmic production of the historian. Therefore, its theoretical assumptions are re-discussed and
historicized in the context of Ferro’s works and through the analysis of three of his programs.
Keywords: Cinema; History; Marc Ferro; newsreels.
La construction de l’histoire à la télévision: Marc Ferro et les actualités en Histoire Parallèle
Résumé
En 1989, lorsque l’Europe se transformait avec la chute du mur de Berlin et l’expansion des communications par satellite, se pose La Sept, la
chaîne de télévision franco-allemande. Histoire Paralèlle, présenté par Marc Ferro avec des actualités montrés dans dans les deux pays, 50
ans avant, devient le programme le plus regardé de la station, en confrontant les façons dont les Allemands et les Français ont construit la
guerre, comme elle doit être considérée et vécue par leurs concitoyens. Le programme est devenu un processus socialisé de compréhension
et de réécriture historique, et s’est placé devant le conflit entre mémoire et histoire, question qui a guidé l’historiographie des années 1990.
Cet article analyse Histoire Paralèlle en regardant la relation établie avec l’historien de production historiographie et de films du historien.
Pour cela, les hypothèses sont discutées et historicisées à la lumière de ses œuvres et à travers l’analyse de trois de ses programmes.
Mots clés: Cinéma; Histoire; Marc Ferro; actualités.

This paper is about the semi-official Hungarian newsreel series, The Hungarian News-report (Magyar Híradó and later Magyar Világhíradó/The Hungarian World News). The series was – or should have been – shown in almost every Hungarian cinema week-by-week from the beginning of 1924 until the end of 1944. Although most of the
Hungarian newsreels (various series, both silent and talkie) survived the 20th century, and moreover they are available for everyone on the internet, only a few historians have dealt with them as an historical source.
This paper discusses the institutional background and the content of the most important Hungarian newsreel-series of 1924 to 1944 to point out the historical value and significance of this material. First, the institution that produced the films, The Hungarian Film Bureau (Magyar Filmiroda Rt./MFI) and its international connections will be shortly presented. The content will then be analyzed by focusing on the despiction of violence, destruction and anti-Semitism during the Second World War. The main objective is to reconstruct how the editors (and thus the governments)
exploited the propagandistic potential of The Hungarian World News

This article analyzes how Catholicism had a central role in the identity-creation process after the War. The study employs the online archive of the national agency ‘Istituto Luce’ to analyze 261 newsreels about religion released between 1946 and 1965. The article uses (i) Benedict Anderson’s work on imagined communities and (ii) Roland Barthes’ concept of mythology as theoretical frameworks. This study indicates that the majority of newsreels presented Catholicism as intertwined with Italian politics, and as a central element of both tradition and modernity. These findings suggest that the newly formed Italian democracy used the media to emphasize certain aspects of Catholicism, while overlooking others, such as its implications with the Fascist regime. In this way, the media contributed to create a post-war myth where Catholicism represented a moral resource for the country’s leaders and citizens. This historical process contributes to explain the contemporary pervasiveness of Catholicism in Italian media.

A tanulmány leírja a filmhíradó műfaját, és részletesen tárgyalja a Horthy-kori filmhíradók történetét, kitérve
a propaganda és közönség elérésének kérdésére is. Bemutat néhány lehetséges kutatási-vizsgálati szempontot,
valamint egy példát arra: miként lehet a világháborús erőszak ábrázolását elemezni. Mindennek az is a célja,
hogy a filmhíradók oktatásban való használatában eligazítson, ahhoz ötleteket adjon.

In: Médiakutató, 2014 tél. 13-23. o. [http://www.mediakutato.hu/cikk/2014_04_tel/02_horthy_filmhirado.pdf]

Il paper indaga sulla volontà politica e sulla struttura istituzionale che governava l'attività del Reparto Africa Orientale dell'Istituto LUCE. Creato direttamente da Benito Mussolini nel settembre 1935, il Reparto LUCE A.O. era chiamato a seguire l'avanzata militare delle truppe italiane in Etiopia, descrivendo la guerra coloniale in modo che concretizzasse i miti che animavano la cultura fascista. Emerge una dialettica tra le varie istituzioni che poterono influenzare l'attività del reparto (l'Istituto LUCE, Benito Mussolini, gli uffici africani del Ministero della stampa e propaganda, i comandi militari), dialettica che poi si riflette nei contenuti dei cinegiornali riguardanti la battaglia d'Etiopia.
Il concetto di "alterità", inteso in maniera orientalista, è plasmato in modo da poter costruire l'immagine dell'elemento africano (declinato nelle rappresentazioni del territorio e della società etiope) affinché esso sia funzionale al processo di ridefinizione identitaria operato in patria dal fascismo. I cinegiornali e i documentari LUCE, diffusi ossessivamente in Italia e in colonia, mostrarono elementi di un discorso razziale che subdolamente si inserirono nella narrazione di quegli anni, lasciando eredità che si sono inserite subdolamente nella società e nella cultura italiane, immagini e contenuti che paiono resilienti anche alla caduta della dittatura e all'avvento della Repubblica.

Os estudos de cinema têm vindo a construir-se em torno do filme de ficção, dentro de um paradigma predominantemente estético, autoral e nacional. Apesar de constituírem a maior parte da produção mundial, os filmes de não-ficção – uma categoria alargada, de metragem variada, que inclui diferentes géneros – têm sido marginalizados ou excluídos das várias histórias e historiografias do cinema, nacionais e internacionais. Esta introdução ao dossier “Outros Filmes”, começa por delinear o surgimento, na década de 1990, dentro e fora da academia, de perspectivas críticas que permitiram a valorização destes filmes e, por conseguinte, o seu estudo. É tendo em conta este contexto internacional que se apresenta um breve balanço do panorama português e brasileiro. O objectivo do dossier, a partir dos seus 6 artigos (a maior parte dos quais sobre o filme amador e o filme de actualidades), é lançar as bases para uma discussão mais vasta sobre o modo como os “outros filmes” podem (devem?) levar-nos a repensar os estudos de cinema e das imagens em movimento.

The official news reel of the Franco's Spain era, NO-DO present two types of news that reveal a split in the documentary, especially in its early years. On the one hand, those which refer to past events of the regime, memories of civil war and actuallity World War II. On the other hard, miscellaneous stories and curiosities of an exotic and flokloric tono. It is precisely these last news that reveal by their tone, their attitude toward representation and their ideological vagueness what we might call an 'involuntary testimony' of an era. The present study is drawn from an exhaustive analys8s of the production between 1943 and 1944.

"Vera Inez Elkan: The problems of early female embedded war correspondents.


Vera Elkan went to Spain in 1936 as an embedded photographer and filmmaker.  The improvised, radical and libertarian nature of the response to Franco’s uprising meant that not only was Spanish Republicanism a beacon for radicalized women seeking to emancipate themselves within their homes, societies and industries, but also that they found themselves, at least at first, welcomed into evolving Republican frontline military, medical and journalistic roles. 

Elkan obtained a free hand to film and photograph, travelling with both the International Brigade and their pioneering medical service.  Her documentaries were vital fundraising propaganda and useful film sources for newsreel companies – keeping the war on the news agenda, also providing unique records of their subjects which, despite their onetime ubiquity as 16mm educational history resources have evaded serious historical analysis, while her photographs are the standard images of history textbooks.

However Vera Elkan’s name is little known, and like her fellow female correspondents, often only comes up in relation to those men with whom she shared a bed, the women little more than distracting courtesans (rather than as politically and artistically serious sexual liberals), and their work, which was often published collectively, seen as an extension of a male partner’s work, or interesting only in the light of ‘women’s history’ rather than in the persecution and promotion of the war and it’s aims on a national and global stage.

This paper disentangles the work of women journalists embedded with the military, from the narratives of them as embedded by sexually dominant men, and outlines what is known of Elkan and her work, it’s contexts both on the front line and within the first (and female staffed) military PR office in Valencia, and back in the UK where her work was absorbed into the collective of the Progressive Film Unit.


This talk would ideally be accompanied by Elkan’s sole ascribed film International Brigades (1937) – 11mins."