With the great, constant renovation and development of various knowledge and economy, talents of compound, high quality and high skills are in urgent need in society; a new educational reform runs through the whole foreign teaching courses, including audio-visual course, speaking, reading, writing and translating courses. With the aid of…

Death, illness, divorce, abuse--any degree of loss is unpleasant to discuss, unpleasant to think about. Yet, no one is exempt from the misfortunes that accompany life's journey. This includes gifted children, who at times may be perceived as self-sufficient and smart enough to figure out their own problems even if they are overwhelmingly upset…

The "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that in 2004, suicide was the third leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year olds and accounted for 4,599 deaths. From 2003 to 2004, suicide rates of females age 10-14 years and 15-19 years and males age 15-19 years increased significantly.…

Of all the videos that the author shows in psychopathology class, the one that her graduate students invariably find the most disturbing is "Crank: Made in America" (Yates, 2003). Long-time users of methamphetamine (meth) candidly tell their stories in this HBO film. The author still finds it very unsettling to watch it, even though she…

The 2007 film "Freedom Writers" portrays the real-life experiences of Erin Gruwell, a teacher at an inner-city high school in Long Beach, California. This article discusses the educational theories underpinning Gruwell's pedagogical practice, as seen in "Freedom Writers", and identifies four themes--rewriting curriculum,…

Successful makers of "persuasive films"--i.e., films which attempt to incorporate the viewers' attitudes in the message in order to influence them--were surveyed for this study to determine the procedures used in the planning and production of educational films. This survey replicated a 1981 study by Simonson, but included several follow up…

To understand film as a form of political communication, movies must be regarded as an art form made both with commercial and aesthetic considerations and with cultural, industrial, and artistic traditions in mind. Filmmaking must also be viewed as a process or as a temporal activity of a culture. Through political mediation, or the process of…

This report on a conference, which brought together representatives of various humanistic disciplines to explore the cross-disciplinary appeal of film study as well as the use of film in stimulating scholarship and teaching, includes a narrative summary of the day's conversations and issues raised, as well as of reprints of articles that suggest…

"La Chute de la Maison Usher" is a film adaptation by Jean Epstein of two stories by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Oval Portrait." This film was typical of Epstein's artistic preoccupation with the ambivalence of reality as expressed in fantasy or surrealism, in qualities of movement, and…

This reference book contains an alphabetically arranged list of world film stars, producers, directors, and other filmmakers and an index of important films from 1898 to 1972. Each of the major entries notes brief biographical data, with dates of important events in the lives of the subjects, and the titles and dates of the films to which the…

Discusses two films ("Dos veces mujer" and "Intima raiz") of Patricia Howell. Demonstrates how thoroughly the feminist themes Howell's films weave together around motherhood are inflected by the specific Latin American and Costa Rican contexts in which she works. (RS)

In 2 studies, the sensitivity of 3- and 4-year-olds to the previous accuracy of informants was assessed. Children viewed films in which 2 informants labeled familiar objects with differential accuracy (across the 2 experiments, children were exposed to the following rates of accuracy by the more and less accurate informants, respectively: 100% vs.…

In this article, the author shares the views of John Williams, Hollywood's premier composer, who has written more than 300 scores, about the future of classical and film music. A gregarious person in a field requiring monklike isolation, Williams values the "association with the soloists, and the wonderful inspiration from players." His…

This study guide for high school and college students examines selected, revolutionary political films made by Godard, Rocha, Solanas, Sanjines, and others, notably Czech and Cuban film-makers. This guide stresses an aesthetic, auteuristic approach and touches upon film production procedures. The films recommended for study range in technique from…