Green Film Criticism and Its Futures

Published in Foreign Literature Studies 29. 1 (2007), special ecocriticism issue. Also forthcoming in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE).

Abstract:
In a series of articles and monographs published over the last decade or so, the new field of ecocritical cinema studies has begun to take shape. This article reviews the main directions and achievements of ecologically-minded film criticism to date, and suggests some directions for further study by which the field can become more rigorous, comprehensive, and mature. It takes up a series of epistemological positions -- including realist, critical or emancipatory, cultural-constructivist, and phenomenological and postmodern perspectives -- to examine popular (Hollywood), independent, experimental, and documentary cinema traditions. Following Andrew Ross's argument that "green" cultural studies should examine not only "images of ecology" but also "the ecology of images," the author delves into the material, social, and perceptual ecologies of film culture. In this multi-ecological perspective, the production, distribution, and consumption of films has material effects, expresses social as well as ecological meanings, and affects perceptions and understandings of the world -- a world that provides both the source and the "sink" for everything that goes into and comes out of any film production."

Manuscript available by request from author.