Journal of Studies in Communication,
Film and Cultural Industries - CFCI

Journal of Studies in Communication,
Film and Cultural Industries

ISSN 3153–3582 / ISSN-L 3153–3582

Articole din Ediția Curentă - CFCI Nr.1/2025

1
Emanuela MOTRESCU
ema.motrescu@usm.ro
Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava

Memory, ethics, and archival footage in autobiographical documentary: an interdisciplinary perspective

18 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

This article analyses Michelle Citron's Daughter Rite (1979) through the lenses of memory studies, autobiographical narrative theory, and documentary ethics. It examines how the film recontextualizes domestic footage through contradiction and historicization, transforming private family images into subjective and critical reflections on mother-daughter relations. The article also applies Stuart Katz and Judith Milstein Katz's ethical variables (consent, disclosure, motive, and construction) to assess the moral tensions generated when personal history becomes cinematic material. By combining archival imagery, voice-over narration, and reconstructed scenes, Daughter Rite exposes the instability of autobiographical memory and challenges assumptions about documentary objectivity. The analysis demonstrates how Citron's film foregrounds the constructed nature of self-representation and reveals the ethical complexities inherent in filming intimate relationships. Overall, the article contributes interdisciplinary approaches on autobiographical documentaries and the representation of private life in contemporary non-fiction cinema.

Keywords

memory construction documentary ethics interdisciplinary film studies autobiographical documentary archival footage
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2
Ioana MITITELU
ioana.mititelu@usm.ro
Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava

The speaking image: on cinematic language and the shaping of meaning

15 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

When discussing cinema, we refer to a medium that communicates through more than words alone. Cinema relies on a complex visual and auditory language that exists in a relationship of interdependence with human emotion and perception. This article explores the specific characteristics of cinematic language and examines the intricate processes through which meaning is generated within this artistic realm. Through the dynamic interaction between image, sound, editing, and temporality, cinema becomes a representation of totality. In this sense, totality does not refer solely to the reproduction of reality, but rather to the transformation of the cinematic experience into expression. Consequently, the article highlights the role of elements of cinematic language in constructing narrative coherence, as well as the mechanisms through which immersion is produced.

Keywords

cinematic language cinematic experience cinema expression immersion visual and auditory language
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3
Petru Ioan MARIAN-ARNAT
petru.marian@usm.ro
Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava

La terreur comme spectacle : une analyse critique du film d'horreur avec des zombies

24 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

Our article explores how the horror genre, and more specifically the zombie subgenre, reflects and comments on broader cultural anxieties. Horror films featuring zombies serve as a barometer of cultural anxieties, examining and undermining the norms and policies of contemporary capitalism by using monsters as metaphors for economic and social crisis. Horror films featuring zombies function as discursive artifacts and spaces of ideological conflict that contribute to both reinforcing and disseminating cultural norms, but also to challenging them. The analysis provides us with sufficient arguments to consider the genre as either fundamentally conservative, acting to support the status quo by demonizing and destroying the unknown, or radical and transformative, challenging norms while exposing societal fears.

Keywords

horror films zombies crisis social criticism ideological analysis
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4
Ștefan SFICHI
stefans@usm.ro
Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava

Between pedagogy and poetics: how contemporary audiovisual narratives educate the public through fictional empathy

14 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

In contemporary audiovisual culture, fictional series and animated productions increasingly operate as vehicles for social and psychological education. This article examines two emblematic case studies - Sex Education and BoJack Horseman - to analyse how humour, character identification, aesthetic strategies, and narrative structures allow filmmakers to address sensitive subjects such as sexuality, mental health, and psychosomatic trauma in a subtle and emotionally resonant way. The article situates these productions within a broader evolution away from didactic documentary approaches toward hybrid forms that merge commercial appeal with artistic reflection.

Keywords

audiovisual narrative pedagogy through fiction streaming platforms empathy mental health cultural industries animation contemporary series
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5
Raluca-Andreea NECHIFOR
raluca.nechifor17@gmail.com
Faculty of Letters "Vasile Alecsandri" University of Bacău

Reconstructing image and trust through the language of cinematographic art critique

37 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

This article explores the strategies through which film critique reconstructs image and trust in the contemporary media landscape, focusing on the 2022 television adaptation of Interview with the Vampire as a case study. It enhances its critical reception, as well as the manner in which language creates and modifies the image of certain characters, in comparison to the 1994 film adaptation and the literary portrait created by Anne Rice. The analysis employs discourse and rhetorical methods to examine how the language of critic's functions not only as an evaluative tool but also as a medium for establishing authority, credibility and audience confidence.

Keywords

cinematographic art critique trust and image reconstruction discourse analysis cultural representation identity crisis
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6
Gelu SABĂU
sabaugelu@yahoo.com
Faculty of Journalism "Hyperion" University of Bucharest

Infocracy. The end of democracy?

9 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

The present book, written by the South Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han, serves as a concise yet powerful introduction to the issues raised by contemporary social transformations under the technological impact of digitalization. Although the book is the size of a brochure and uses an almost aphoristic language, it highlights the essential aspects of the changes we are all undergoing. The article analyzes how infocracy as a social regime transforms democracy through data exploitation, the crisis of the public sphere, and the proliferation of fake news.

Keywords

infocracy digitalization democracy crisis fake news public sphere digital surveillance
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7
Ioan MATEICIUC
mateiciucioan@yahoo.com
Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași

Screen-worlds and the filmic imaginary: cinema as an archive of cultural memory

21 pagini în acest articol

Abstract

This article examines cinema as a dynamic generator of cultural memory, arguing that filmic images do not merely document or represent the past; rather, they produce and reconfigure the imaginary by activating the specificity of the filmic medium and its modes of affective and symbolic transmission. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks developed by Jan and Aleida Assmann, Bernard Stiegler, Vivian Sobchack, and Alison Landsberg, the study conceptualizes cinema as a "memory machine" capable of shaping individual and collective perceptions and affects related to history, identity, and belonging. Contemporary visual culture—marked by digitalization, distributed and ubiquitous archives, and algorithmic circulation—intensifies this mnemonic function, transforming screen-worlds into privileged spaces where memory is stored, negotiated, contested, and reimagined.

Keywords

cinema filmic imaginary mnemonic infrastructures screen-worlds prosthetic memory cultural technology
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