Short Film Studies

The paper focuses on formal and genre traits of video game trailers. In the first part, the author characterizes trailers to feature films, and subsequently those produced for video games. It is thus demonstrated that the latter draw on the achievement of the former, though they still differ in many respects. The section entitled “Animation technology in video game trailers” is devoted to the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 , in which the author distinguishes the cinematic devices and at the same time highlights the elements which have no equivalent in film-related productions. The next example, i.e. Game of Thrones, serves to demonstrate how persuasion operates in trailers featuring fragments of gameplay, whereas the section entitled “The syncretic approach: animation and gameplay” explains the reasons behind using both techniques in trailers. Further analysis, concerned with the trailer to Fallout 3 , outlines the effects produced when the style characteristic of advertising is employed in a trailer. Finally, the author discusses the genres of video game trailers, showing the means and the aims involved in the strategy of constructing trailers, which consists in exploiting genre conventions. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrates that although video game trailers evolved from film trailers, they elaborated on their particular poetics by introducing structural innovations.

Na primeira década deste século, o cinema português reconfigurou-se com o aparecimento de vários novos autores. Este novíssimo cinema português não é fruto do acaso, mas antes o resultado de várias transformações significativas que fora acontecendo progressivamente ao nível dos modos de produção e das novas opções temáticas e cinematográficas. Visualmente, o cinema português foi, lentamente, transformando-se e o panorama atual é, em muitos aspetos, diferente daquilo que, até há bem pouco tempo, era entendido como " cinema português ". Neste breve texto, tentaremos fazer uma análise tanto produtiva, como temática, mostrando, em concreto, que mudanças foram operadas e que tendências podemos vislumbrar nestes novos autores. Como ainda nos encontramos com pouca distância histórica, o nosso argumento é, em certo sentido, algo especulativo e a carecer de confirmação futura. É claro que não queremos, com este texto, fechar o conceito de "cinema português" num grupo de autores ou mesmo do género do “cinema de autor”. Apenas tentamos fazer uma análise de algumas das tendências que se podem reconhecer nas últimas duas décadas.

RESUMO Este trabalho pretende discutir os procedimentos utilizados pelo técnico de som direto na captação para filmes de ficção. É dividido em dois capítulos. O primeiro traz uma breve contextualização do ofício. O segundo descreve os procedimentos adotados por mim na captação de som do curta-metragem“Rosa e Benjamin”

Los avances tecnológicos de los años sesenta junto con la radicalización política permitieron que la imagen cinematográfica incorporara a un nuevo sujeto, antes marginado. De este modo, el cortometraje documental se perfiló como un vehículo eficaz para desarrollar tal empresa. El objetivo del trabajo consiste en revisar los modos de inclusión de las voces de sectores subalternos en un corpus de cortos documentales argentinos en los años sesenta y setenta, en pos de reflexionar en torno al papel del testimonio en la construcción de identidades marginadas y los diferentes grados de compromiso del film corto con la realidad social.

The technological advances of the sixties joined with the political radicalization allowed the cinematic image incorporating a new subject, previously marginalized. Thus, the short documentary emerged as an effective vehicle for developing this task. The purpose of this paper is to review the ways that the voices of subaltern sectors are included on a corpus of Argentinean short documentaries in the sixties and seventies, in order to think about the role of the testimony in the construction of marginalized identities and the different degrees of short films’ social engagement.

Cossalter, Javier (2014), “El testimonio en el cortometraje documental argentino de los años sesenta y setenta. Identidades marginadas y nuevas voces” en Cine Documental, ISSN 1852-4699, nº 10, junio/2014, pp. 45-70

¿Es el cortometraje una herramienta educativa? ¿Puede servir para ampliar el conocimiento sobre un determinado tema y modificar las conductas de la población? Nos formulamos estas preguntas mientras el cambio climático avanza de manera inexorable, los dirigentes políticos se ponen de perfil, los medios de comunicación distorsionan la realidad de los hechos y la sociedad manifiesta una elevada preocupación, pero también un alto grado de desconocimiento en torno a una de las principales amenazas del siglo XXI. En nuestra investigación apostamos por el valor educativo y concienciador de este tipo de relatos, y por ello proponemos un análisis de contenido a partir de los proyectos elaborados en el marco del campus de formación medioambiental Climántica. Los resultados demuestran que este material, que ha sido elaborado por alumnos de educación secundaria de España, Portugal y México, aborda cuestiones distintas a la cobertura de los medios de comunicación profesionales, aportando así una perspectiva mucho más cercana a la representación social del fenómeno. Sus miedos e inquietudes, pero también las denuncias y propuestas de estos jóvenes representan un interesante acercamiento hacia la postura que mantienen las generaciones que tomarán nuestro relevo en la lucha contra el cambio climático.

El presente estudio explora el contexto que rodea al auge del movimiento cortometrajista en Argentina hacia finales de la década del cincuenta, para centrarse luego en el análisis de algunas producciones fílmicas, en búsqueda de rasgos formales y temáticos que nos permitan catalogar al cortometraje como antecedente del Nuevo Cine Argentino. El surgimiento de talleres y grupos de creación independiente, junto con el papel de formación llevado a cabo por los cine- clubes y las escuelas especializadas, así como la caída del gobierno de Juan Domingo Perón y las modificaciones en la política cinematográfica, brindaron a los jóvenes realizadores el conocimiento y la libertad para explorar el lenguaje fílmico, y expresarlo a través de las posibilidades estéticas y económicas que proponía en su momento el cortometraje.

Cossalter, Javier (2011), “Gestación del Nuevo Cine Argentino: rasgos de modernidad en el cortometraje de finales de los años 50” en El ojo que piensa. Revista de cine iberoamericano. Nueva época, ISSN 04-2010-012013403000-203, nº 4, julio-diciembre/2011

¿Qué es un cortometraje? La finalidad de este trabajo consiste en analizar desde distintos puntos de vista las cualidades del cortometraje que la Teoría le asigna como propias, para luego volcarlas en el análisis de dos cortos de ficción argentinos de los años sesenta, con el objetivo de encontrar las especificidades de dicha práctica. La comparación con el cuento, la confrontación de las posturas clásica y modernista en torno al corto y el repaso contextual del auge del film breve en nuestro país, serán las herramientas que nos permitirán aproximarnos a la noción del film breve como expresión artística autónoma.

Cossalter, Javier (2012), “En busca de la(s) especificidad(es) del cortometraje. El corto de ficción en la argentina de los años sesenta” en Revista Lindes. Estudios Sociales del Arte y la Cultura, ISSN 1853-5798, nº 5, octubre 2012.

El campo cultural argentino de los años sesenta y setenta evidenció una marcada transformación que incidió en las diversas prácticas artísticas. El cine nacional se caracterizó por una renovación estética, manifestando una reflexión sobre el medio expresivo en el cruce de apropiaciones foráneas y especificidades locales. El propósito de este trabajo consiste en realizar un análisis fílmico del cortometraje experimental argentino del período, tomando como referencia exponentes extranjeros. Para ello, examinaremos en primer lugar las características teóricas del cine experimental y estudiaremos las condiciones culturales e históricas de posibilidad y emergencia de dicha cinematografía en nuestro medio. En última instancia, abordaremos el apartado analítico tomando tres grandes tendencias dentro del cine experimental –el cine de animación experimental; el cine estructural y el cine de vanguardia.

The Argentine cultural field in the sixties and seventies showed a marked transformation that affected the diverse artistic practices. The national film featured an aesthetic renewal, manifesting a reflection on the expressive medium at the intersection of foreign appropriations and local specificities. The purpose of this paper is to make a film analysis of Argentine experimental short film in the period, taking as reference foreign exponents. To do this, we will first examine the theoretical characteristics of experimental film and study the cultural and historical conditions of possibility and emergence of that film in our cinematography. Then, the analytical section will address three trends within experimental cinema –experimental-animation cinema; structural film and avant-garde cinema.

Cossalter, Javier (2014), “El cine experimental de cortometraje en la argentina de los años sesenta y setenta: apropiaciones y vinculaciones transnacionales” en ERAS - European Review of Artistic Studies, ISSN 1647-3558, Vol 5, nº 4, diciembre/2014, pp. 32-49

This analysis focuses on Blow-Up's play with synchronous and asynchronous sound; the use of breath and frame size to join the visual and sonic dimensions of the concept of blowing up; and its commitment to the embodiment of both viewer and the material of cinema.

More than half a century after the film shooting at the Marieholm Iron Works in Sweden, I review Prince Wilhelm’s gaze on my grandmother’s grandfather’s brother. Based on one and the same event in 1942, I discuss the stories we create as storytellers. I try to understand what Wilhelm wanted to see in Janne Ousbäck, hammer smith in Marieholm, and annotate in his notebook for further use in the short film ‘Hos smålänningar’ (With Smålanders; SF Swedish Film Industry 1942, directed by Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, cinematography by Gustaf Boge). I also take a closer look on Wilhelm’s blind spots in the image of Sweden presented by him in his short films and essays about the films. In a certain sense, I investigate a triangular drama of glances over time, more specifically of Wilhelm, Janne Ousbäck and me as active mediators of more or less polished images. I focus my gaze on the 1940s prince and can recognise an artist with a Romantic view of Swedish history and society, conveyed in poetic films and essays by using landscapes, villages and bearers of tradition, like Janne Ousbäck. Wilhelm, in his turn, viewed Janne Ousbäck as a traditional forebear of the modern entrepreneurial Smålander, that is, the people in the province of Småland, whose memories needed to be saved for future generations; for instance in and by means of his cultural-historical short films and essays about the films. Janne Ousbäck, finally, conveyed a story about the film shooting in 1942, and explained, so I have learned from the oral family tradition, why he met the prince in his shirt sleeves.

Tra la ampia letteratura dedicata all’opera di Abbas Kiarostami, pochi sono gli studi che si sono soffermati specificamente sulla sua produzione di cortometraggi. Eppure il regista iraniano è stato un autore prolifico di film brevi. Dall’inizio degli anni Settanta fino alla metà degli Ottanta ha firmato tredici corti, quattro medi e due soli lungometraggi, tutti finanziati dal Kanun, un istituto governativo specializzato in film per l’infanzia. Di questi anni sono lavori come Il pane e il vicolo (1970), Ricreazione (1972), Due soluzioni per un problema (1975), Il vestito per il matrimonio (1976), Il coro (1982) che anticipano temi e forme della sua produzione più matura....

It is known that the visual products which has become widespread through the visual media in general and the social media in particular is highly effecting individuals’ way of thinking, perception, interpretation and vision. The short films shot recently spread over social media moves this affect to another dimension. This affect sometimes
arises in a rational level in individuals’ minds but sometimes it takes place in an emotional level and occurs in an irrational way. This study examines the existence of an esthetic phenomenon spreading over social media and the final procuct in an esthetical extent after the processes of the production stage with the sample film. The purpose of
this study is to exposure, while an esthetic phenomenon is produced how the producer’s world of though and the perspective creates reality and in this context how the product appeals to the receivers’ cognition levels and accordingly to their emotions.

ÖZET
Genelde görsel medyanın özelde ise sosyal medya aracılığıyla yaygınlaşan görsel ürünlerin çağımız insanın düşünme, algılama, yorumlama ve görme biçimleri üzerine etkilerinin oldukça fazla olduğu bilinmektedir. Son yıllarda çekilen kısa filmlerin sosyal medya üzerinden yayılması ise bahsi geçen etkiyi başka bir boyuta taşımaktadır. Bu etki özneler üzerinde kimi zaman rasyonel boyutta ortaya çıkarken kimi zamanlarda ise insanların duygu dünyası üzerinde meydana gelmekte ve irrasyonel bir şekilde ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışma incelediği örnek film ile sosyal medyada yaygınlaşan estetik bir fenomenin var oluşunu incelemekte ve üretim aşamasında yaşanan süreçler ile ortaya çıkan ürünün estetik boyutlarını ele almaktadır. Araştırmanın amacı bir estetik fenomen üretilirken, üreticinin düşünce dünyası ve bakış açısının nasıl bir gerçeklik yarattığı ve eserin bu bağlamda alımlayıcının biliş düzeylerine ve dolayısıyla duygularına nasıl hitap ettiğinin ortaya konulmasıdır.

Las cinematografías de América Latina en las décadas del sesenta y setenta estuvieron marcadas por un fuerte compromiso político, en una época de agitación social. El cortometraje de carácter documental fue elegido como un dispositivo eficaz capaz de desarrollar –desde lo temático y lo expresivo– un cine de acción. De este modo, la propuesta de este trabajo se centra en el análisis comparado de un pequeño corpus de cortometrajes argentinos y chilenos, con el objetivo de examinar las similitudes y diferencias entre ambos, y plantear la noción del corto como un medio de intervención de la realidad histórica independientemente de las ideologías de turno.

The cinemas from Latin America in the sixties and seventies were marked by a strong political commitment at a time of social upheaval. The documentary short film was chosen as an effective device capable of develop –from the theme and the forms of expression– an act-cinema. Thus, the proposal of this work focuses on the comparative analysis of a small corpus of short films in Argentina and Chile, in order to examine the similarities and differences between them, and propose the notion of short film as a means of intervention in the historical reality, regardless of the prevailing ideologies.

Cossalter, Javier (2013), “Un estudio comparado entre el cortometraje documental argentino y chileno de los años sesenta y setenta: entre la denuncia y la acción” en Metakinema. Revista de cine e historia, ISSN 1988-8848, nº 13, octubre 2013

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa 2. Il formato breve nel cinema di finzione e documentario 3. Il mondo del lavoro nei documentari brevi 4. Cinema espanso, tra design narrativo e regimi di senso 5. Una ‘griglia di valutazione’ per il Festival Short on Work 6. Esempi di analisi, tra soggettivante e oggettivante 7. Di alcune tendenze del documentario contemporaneo 8. Aperture epistemologiche.

'Bullet in the Brain' (2001) adapts the key rhetorical figure of apophasis from Tobias Wolff's short story into a remarkable interrelation between sound and picture: an 'audiovisual apophasis', in which a series of memories negated by voice-over narration finds visual expression-and further accentuation-as a result of that very negation.

**NB: This paper is taken from the draft of my article 'Quantitative analysis of sound in a short horror film' above.

Audio segmentation comprises a set of techniques for analysing the features of audio signals, including motion picture soundtracks. Parsing the structure of film audio allows us to identify scenes and change points, features in the audio envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release), the distribution of sound energy, and the presence of affective events in a soundtrack. Despite the availability of a wide range of software capable of audio analysis (e.g. Python, R, Sonic Visualiser, Audacity, Speech Filing System, Raven Lite, etc.) statistical analyses of cinematic style have yet to apply these methods to the formal analysis of film soundtracks systematically. In this paper I demonstrate the analysis of film sound using the time contour plot of generated by the R package seewave. The time contour plot is a graphical method for visualising the temporal structure of sound energy based on the short-time Fourier transform of a signal and allows analysts to identify interesting features in a film’s soundtrack that warrant further examination and to communicate is a straightforward manner that is easy to comprehend. Applying this method to the soundtrack of Behold the Noose (Jamie Brooks, 2014), a short horror film, I show that the sound energy in the film increases non-linearly in creating of a state of heightened anxiety in the viewer.

In The War Is Over, Croatian director Nina Mimica portrays a disabled veteran of an undefined war announcing his homecoming to his family. In this article I will examine the implications of Mimica’s short in a world that seems to posit ‘the end of war’ as a conceptual and narrative impossibility.

The paper looks at film director Ron Tunis' 1967 animated short adaptation of the wonder tale The House That Jack Built.  The paper argues that Tunis' translation of literary to visual signs subverts the wonder tale's traditional happy ending and does so as social critique. The research draws upon primary sources including the works of Keith Cohen, Andrew Dudley, Christina Bacchilega, Seymour Chatman and Jack Zipes.

Jørgen Leth’s 1967 film "The Perfect Human" tempts a formalist reading: that the human is perfect when, thanks to the camera’s intervention, it doesn’t appear in the world. Yet Leth’s aim is not to confirm this modern ideal of human self-sufficiency; rather, he exiles the human on film to expose our hunger for the world.

Cuando hablamos de pornografía nos transportamos directamente al con-sumo sexual primario del hombre, quien está a un clic de encontrar ma-terial para su corta e íntima satisfacción después de un día de trabajo o en las horas de aburrimiento. Mientras los años pasan las generaciones cambian, no todos navegan en internet buscando lo mismo, mucho menos cuando hablamos de sexo. Disfrutamos ahora de una generación de jóvenes bastante fresca, emprendedora y con hambre de tener siempre más, de un público que se destaca por su interés en las estéticas cotidianas. “Todo entra por los ojos”, podría ser el lema de esta generación bien vestida y de maquillajes perfectos, de alimentación saludable y ambientes visualmen-te estimulantes. Lo que buscaban las generaciones anteriores en los sitios pornográficos no es lo mismo que satisface a los jóvenes de hoy. Por tales razones, he decidido explorar las estéticas de la sexualidad desde la cine-matografía, el erotismo en lo cotidiano, la importancia de los detalles, los colores que crean atmósferas y las formas precisas, para brindar a estos espectadores una nueva mirada hacia una dimensión universal que nos concierne a todos: la sexualidad. Creo que, debido a ello, varias personas han llegado a describir mi trabajo como poético, limpio, suave o sutil.

As a practitioner, I am interested in using moving image poetically to express metaphysical truths about women's experiences, both contemporary and throughout history. My work encompasses experimental narrative film and video installation. I loosely weave filmic tropes together to create a latticework of 'gaps' into which a viewer contributes their own frame of reference in an imaginary dialogue with the work. The resonance of the work is thus extended to reveal 'the '3 rd meaning' i.e. new meaning created when 2 or more elements are juxtaposed. This paper investigates the nature and creation of this 'third meaning' by the juxtaposition of poetic elements in moving image art and film, including case studies of the author's own work. The paper explores whether the medium of moving image can behave in the same way that poetry or music does in directly accessing emotional responses in the viewer, providing a gateway to the imagination. Can film be a truly 'immersive' medium? What implications does this have for the position of women as 'makers' rather than 'bearers' of meaning (Mulvey, 1973); The impact of new technologies on artistic filmmaking is also considered.

El cortometraje moderno latinoamericano participó de forma activa en las transformaciones del campo cultural regional entre las décadas del 50 y del 70, caracterizado por la experimentación estética, la intermedialidad y la efervescencia social. La imbricación entre arte y política suscita una serie de reflexiones en torno al film breve alrededor del 68 mexicano, objeto de estudio del presente artículo. En este sentido, el trabajo aborda los cortometrajes Comunicados cinematográficos del Consejo Nacional de Huelga (Paul Leduc y Rafael ‎Castanedo, 1968) y Mural efímero (Raúl Kamffer, 1968-1973) con el propósito de analizar su estatuto de obra estética, agente de la historia y documento social. En este caso, el registro (audio)visual de una movilización y de un acto artístico performático no solo evidencia la voluntad comunicacional de la instancia de producción en un período cercano al de su concepción, sino que vislumbra el anhelo por construir una memoria del presente. Asimismo, la eficacia de la imagen visual en tanto documento histórico, y por ende su carácter mnemónico, se manifiestan en la conformación de una tradición visual y en la recuperación y puesta en valor patrimonial de estas obras, desde entonces hasta la actualidad. Por tal motivo, el artículo examina también un film mexicano contemporáneo que retoma las imágenes acerca del movimiento estudiantil, con la intención de confirmar tales premisas.

The modern Latin American short film actively participated in the transformations of the regional cultural field between the 1950s and 1970s, characterized by aesthetic experimentation, intermediality and social effervescence. The interweaving between art and politics raises a series of reflections on the short film around the Mexican 68, the object of study of this article. In this sense, the work addresses the Comunicados cinematográficos del Consejo Nacional de Huelga (Paul Leduc and Rafael Castanedo, 1968) and Mural efímero (Raúl Kamffer, 1968-73) with the purpose of analyzing their statute of aesthetic work, agent of the history and social document. In this case, the (audio)visual recording of a mobilization and a performative artistic act not only shows the communicational will of the production instance in a period close to that of its conception, but also glimpses the desire to build a memory of the present. Likewise, the effectiveness of the visual image as a historical document, and therefore its mnemonic character, are manifested in the conformation of a visual tradition and in the recovery and value of these works, from then to the present. For this reason, the article also examines a contemporary Mexican film that takes up images about the student movement, with the intention of establishing these premises.

Cossalter, Javier (2021), “¿Arte?, ¿Documento?, ¿Política? La construcción de memoria en el cortometraje alrededor del 68 mexicano”, en Austral Comunicación, Universidad Austral, ISSN 2313-9137, Vol. 10, nº 1, pp. 183-206.

A partir del análisis de las cualidades específicas del cortometraje, y teniendo en cuenta la tipología de las identidades resaltadas, la enunciación y las formas de expresión utilizadas, los objetivos y los circuitos de exhibición, el presente artículo propone un estudio comparado entre un corpus de cortos documentales del período de gobierno de Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955) y una selección de films breves documentales de los años sesenta, con el objetivo discernir las particularidades de cada práctica y reconocer las potencialidades del dispositivo corto como vehículo de aprehensión del receptor.

Beginning with the analysis of the short film’s particular qualities, and going on with the identities’ typology, the enunciation and forms of expression used, the goals and exhibition circuits, this article proposes a comparative study among a corpus of documentary short films released during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955) and a selection of documentary short films of the sixties, with the objective of distinguish the specificities of each practice and recognize the potential of the short dispositive as an instrument to reach the audience.

Cossalter, Javier (2013), “El orden conciliado frente a las voces disidentes. Un estudio comparado entre el cortometraje documental institucional en la Argentina del peronismo y el cortometraje documental alternativo de los años sesenta” en DOC On-line. REVISTA DIGITAL DE CINEMA DOCUMENTÁRIO, ISSN 1646-477X, nº 14, agosto 2013, pp. 181-210

En el año 2010, y motivado por los festejos del bicentenario argentino, se realizaron una serie de cortometrajes que ponían en escena el pasado traumático de la última dictadura, pero con una particularidad: no mostrar las imágenes del horror. Este trabajo se propone entonces analizar el papel de la imagen en la construcción de una memoria crítica y reflexiva, a través del estudio de Restos (Albertina Carri, 2010); (Mi) historia argentina (Gustavo Postiglione, 2010); Mala sangre (Paula Hernández, 2010). A partir de las cualidades del cortometraje y de los debates en torno a la representación de la violencia y la represión en el cine y en el arte en general, se pretende discutir los alcances estético, ético y político de la imagen fílmica, en un momento histórico local en que la memoria se convierte en materia de Estado.

In the year 2010, related with de celebration of the argentinian bicentenary, a few short films that put on screen the traumatic past of the last coup d'etat were released, but they had a particularity: not to show the horror images. This paper proposes an analysis of the images’ role in the construction of a critic and reflexive memory, throughout the examination of Restos (Albertina Carri, 2010); (Mi) historia argentina (Gustavo Postiglione, 2010); Mala sangre (Paula Hernández, 2010). On the basis of the debates on violence and repression in cinema representation, we expect to discuss the aesthetic, ethic and politic importance of the film image, in a particular historic and local context where memory becomes State’s matter.

Cossalter, Javier (2013), “Dilemas de representación en la imagen fílmica: la construcción de la memoria en tres cortometrajes pertenecientes al proyecto "25 miradas – 200 minutos‟ en Imagofagia, ISSN 1852-9550, nº 8, noviembre/2013

Multimodality is a way of composing and combining different semiotic modes in meaning making. The fundamental idea here is that we are interacting with multimodal mediums which include verbal, visual and audiovisual elements during communication. As a consequence of this, every the term multimodality has become one of the essential categories in several disciplines that deal with text analysis such as linguistics, semiotics, media studies and film studies. Films are one of the most examined multimodal text types in these research fields because of their potential for multiplying the highest level of semiotic modes. Christine and Christopher Kezelos‘ stop motion animated short film Zero (2010) is about a fictional world where people are born into a numerical class system. It is a world in which the social standing and destiny of individuals are predetermined based on their number, that define their value in society. The protagonist of the film is born with a zero. As a member of the lowest class, he is constantly discriminated and persecuted by larger numbers to make him feel like nothing. In the form of a numerical caste system, the film contains a sharp criticism of how certain groups of people are treated and discriminated by society in every level of the daily life. Considering films as multimodal texts, this study focuses on the animated short film Zero (2010) and aims to analyze the film‘s distinctive multimodal elements on the basis of Hartmut St ckl‘s (2004; 2012) and Janina Wildfeuer‘s (2014) theories of multimodal film text analysis. Moving towards a multimodal oriented method, the results of this study demonstrate how filmic semiotic modes are used as film‘s narrative to reflect the challenge between social classes and discrimination in society.

This article addresses César Díaz Meléndez's 'Zepo' (2015) as an extended reflection – a 'metapicture' – on the material conditions by which its sand pictures are made. It examines the film's self-reflexive gestures by tracing its visual-narrative motifs of traces on surfaces (blood spots, footprints), together with covering layers and depth (breakable ice, trappings under snow).

Zepo (2015):  https://vimeo.com/92406778

Jørgen Leth has classified The Perfect Human as an anthropological film. But is the film anthropological at all? This article explores Leth’s connections with anthropology
and finds that he is more inspired by anthropological framing than he is by anthropological research methods.