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Screen Stars Dictionary

Issue 16 – 2025 (2)

The year 2025 comes to an end and with number 16 we celebrate the eighth anniversary of Audiovisual Essays Magazine. This issue is composed of four video essays that, quite by chance, have brought a warm note of color to the cold office from which our modest publication is edited.

In “What’s behind Kubrick’s characters?” Mariana Schwartz analyzes the role of production design in Stanley Kubrick’s cinema, focusing on a habitually ignored element: the walls. “AGON. Constructions of democracy” by Nico Carpentier helps us reflect on the term “democracy” as a contested concept, in complex times for addressing such an idea. “haidh na hAithrise/ Nostalgia of imitation” by Nail Ó Muchu transports us to a beautiful montage about Irish cinematic representations of coastal labor history. The final note of color is provided by “Satoshi Kon. Animation’s place in the cinematographic landscape,” where Sara Mai Ortiz de Manuel relates the director’s aesthetics to his industrial influence.

The “From the archive” section features guest contributor Eva Vaca Carrión, whose work on actress Emma Cohen brings us closer to the RTVE archive and allows us to learn through her interviews about her struggles to assert herself as a creator.

 

 

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What’s behind the Kubrick’s characters?

Mariana Schwartz (Beira Interior University) – 4:45

Through theanalysis of six films directed by Stanley Kubrick, this audiovisual essay invites reflection on the design of his sets, focusing on the question: what lies behind Kubrick’s characters?

Keywords: film, digetic space, Kubrick, production design, walls

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AGON. Constructions of Democracy

Nico Carpentier (Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University, República Checa) – 26:00

The film essay AGON is a theoretical reflection on the political construction of democracy. It emphasizes the controversial nature of democracy, distinguishing between its fundamental defining elements, the arenas of political struggle for democracy, the conditions of possibility for democracy, and the threats to democracy.

Keywords: democracy, art research, videoessay

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Cumhaidh na hAithrise/ Nostalgia de la imitación

Niall Ó Murchú (Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University)– 7:00

The video shows multi-screen compositions to compare three films shot on the Atlantic coast of Ireland: Man of Aran (Flaherty et al, 1934), The Secret of Roan Inish (Sayles et al, 1994), and Arracht/Monster. (Sullivan et al, 2019). The essay argues that Irish cinematic representations of coastal labor history are influenced by the pre-existing imaginative nostalgia of Irish-American filmmakers.

Keywords: Atlantic Ocean, Ireland, Memory, Labor, Transtextuality

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Satoshi Kon. The Place of Animation in the Film Landscape

Sara Mai Ortiz de Manuel (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) – 12:45

This video essay will analyze the relationship between Satoshi Kon and cinema as an industry, a reference point, and a concept, through three of his works: the films Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001), and Paprika (2006).

Keywords: anime, Kon, animation, Japan, metacinema

From the Archive

Infantilisation and Sexualisation in Media Representation: Emma Cohen and the
Recovery of the Television Archive

In this section the archives of two interviews with Emma Cohen are shared. They were broadcast on TVE in the 1970s and 1980s, when her creative output was at its peak, have been recovered. Both archives reflect her multidisciplinary creative personality, but also the irony and infantilization with which the media treated her throughout her life.

Section curated by Eva Vaca Carrión (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

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Section curated byr Vicente Rodríguez y Ariel Avissar

Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays
ISSN: 2659-4269
© Grupo de Investigación Tecmerin
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid