Screen Education is essential reading for those with an interest in media literacy. Produced by educators, scholars and critics, the magazines content is tailored to the primary and secondary classroom, as well as some tertiary-level material, offering a unique and engaging perspective on screen education.
The Aesthetic of the Ecstatic REIMAGINING BLACK MASCULINITY IN MOONLIGHT • A relatively low-budget production that made waves for its bold interplay of sound and image and its groundbreaking exploration of African-American masculinity and sexuality, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award–winning feature is a lyrical representation of a tough milieu. As JOANNA DI MATTIA describes, the film’s technical ingredients combine to sensually evoke joy and pain in equal portions.
Rebellion and Restriction CHILDHOOD IN CUSTODY AND THE FLORIDA PROJECT • Throughout cinema’s history, screen narratives about children have often served as conduits for discussions on broader issues such as family law, gender relations and socio-economic disadvantage. Delving into two recent films about children fending for themselves and discovering their own agency in unchosen milieus, FELICITY FORD examines the ways in which these very different texts use framing and body language to convey their young protagonists’ experiences of – and relationships with – their respective worlds.
Rough Justice RAGE AND REDEMPTION IN THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI • Martin McDonagh’s controversial black comedy about a woman’s morally erratic attempts to avenge the death of her daughter has invited criticism for glossing over issues relating to race and disability. But in its lack of heroes or villains and refusal to present easy conclusions, the film is also a profound commentary on the frightening power of human anger, as JASMINE CRITTENDEN finds.
Cinema Science PI AND THE RAPTURE OF COMPLEX MATHEMATICS • While its title already indicates one of its central mathematical topics of concern, Darren Aronofsky’s cult paranoid thriller also offers ample prompts for senior secondary students to explore sequences, phenomena such as the golden ratio and Pythagoras’ theorem, and more intricate concepts like irrational numbers and recursion, as DAVE CREWE outlines.
Building the Fourth Wall ARCHITECTURE AND THE MOVING IMAGE • Film has a long and varied history of interacting with architecture, revealing a cinematic fascination with the aesthetic qualities, narrative possibilities and symbolic connotations of buildings. These structures may be silent and unmoving, but they nonetheless have a great deal of communicative potential on screen, as ANTHONY CAREW outlines.
Aesthetics of Power FORM AND IDEOLOGY IN TRIUMPH OF THE WILL • Leni Riefenstahl’s record of Nazi Party rallies remains one of the most revered and reviled documentaries ever made: a work both innovative in its style and shameless in its manipulation. As THOMAS REDWOOD contends, the film masterfully employs the spectacle it depicts and each element of its cinematic language in the service of propaganda – a testament to both the skill of its director and the depravity of its aims.
Earth in Balance FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST • With its supernatural narrative pitting environmental harmony against destructive human intervention, this classic 1990s Australian animated children’s film remains a powerful statement against wanton deforestation. It also serves as an excellent learning opportunity for upper primary and junior secondary students in English, Geography and Media Arts, as KATY MARRINER outlines.
Nothing Is Sacred PRIVATION AND PIETY IN SIMON OF THE DESERT • A surreal Mexican comedy about the temptations of a hermit sworn to spend the rest of his life on a pillar in the desert in religious contemplation, this mid-length work marked a transition point in the career of master filmmaker...