Visual and New Media Review is a multimedia forum for expanding the boundaries of academic and artistic engagement. Working at the intersections of anthropology, contemporary art, media, sound and film studies, and the digital humanities, the section seeks to sustain dialogues among these kindred pursuits and to provide a platform for experimental and innovative work, as well as critical assessment and reviews of scholarship, film, and visual culture.
A Political Passion Play: Review of The New Gospel
Passion plays are theatrical reenactments of the suffering of Jesus Christ: his trial, the Stations of the Cross, and finally, the crucifixion on Calvary, outsi... More
Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams
After a busted motorboat spark plug leaves members of the Karrabing Collective stranded near the place of the saltwater Dreaming, police show up at their home w... More
Life After Catastrophe: Review of Dylda/Beanpole
Dylda (2019) by Kantemir Balagov is a film about human struggle to conceive a life amid ruins, left behind by war. It is also about the ambivalent meanings and ... More
Trembling Mountain
Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. Gyalpo chants in a low vibration, twisting and smoothing the beads on his mala, touching them to his ... More
Castaway Man
Perhaps the best place to start with Kesang Tseten’s Castaway Man (2015) is with its final scene—with grainy archival footage of a man burying a time capsule in... More
Who Will Be a Gurkha
Kesang Tseten’s Who Will Be a Gurkha (2012) is a corporeal film full of movement, exertion, physicality, and masculine energy. The film follows the archaic sele... More
Ethnocine: Hay Betl7em هاي بيت لحم
We close out curating some of the works from Ethnocine Collective by showcasing two episodes from Laura Menchaca Ruiz and Khader U. Handal's Hay Betl7em (2018–2... More
Four Alleys
Alley Knowing As Tim Dee (2015, 5) says in Four Fields, “what is extraordinary about them often seems familiar.” By them, Dee means fields and their natural and... More
Ethnocine: Get By
The riveting and melodic sounds of the people’s chant inaugurate the opening scene. “Fighting for justice (fighting for justice), and a living wage (and a livin... More
Ethnocine: Nobel Nok Dah
Blur. As the camera moves in and out of focus, we linger in the blur, in the opaque space of subjectivity in motion. When the image comes into focus, we find ou... More