Aca-Media Episode 11: A Tricky Set of Layers (January, 2014): Music in Kurosawa; Report on SCMS Scholarly Interest Groups
This month we bring you a very cool interview with Michael W. Harris about music in Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel, which gets into all kinds of themes: postwar censorship, the meanings of Jazz and American culture in Japanese cinema, and the relationship between filmmakers and scholars. Then Chris takes a closer look at Scholarly Interest Groups within SCMS: what are they, what are they good for, and why would you want to be in one? Finally, Chris and Michael talk about the film and television they have been watching, for better and worse.
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News & Notes
2014 at Wikipedia 
How to write a syllabus 
Cinema Journal Presents
Michael W. Harris at his website and on Twitter 
Michael’s article “Jazzing in the Tokyo Slum: Music, Influence, and Censorship in Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel” (PDF Preview)
“Mack the Knife” in G.W. Pabst’s version of Threepenny Opera 
Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel on IMDB and a good clip on YouTube showing the way jazz music and the film’s milieu intersect
Akira Kurosawa on IMDB and Wikipedia 
Fumio Hayasaka on IMDB and Wikipedia 
Baz Lurhman’s The Great Gatsby on IMDB and the official trailer on YouTube 
Louis Armstrong’s version of Mack the Knife 
Bobby Darin’s version of Mack the Knife 
Lars-martin Sorensen’s Censorship of Japanese Films During the U.S. Occupation of Japan: The Cases of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa 
Kurosawa’s Something Like An Autobiography 
Ravel’s "Bolero" and the scene from Rashomon in which Hayasaka adapts it
Jennifer Peterson's page at CU Boulder 
Donald Richie on Wikipedia and Amazon 
The archives of the Civil Censorship Detachment at the University of Maryland 
Michael W. Harris’ essay for CJ Afterthoughts and Postscripts, "Fumio Hayasaka and Donald Richie: A Friendship"
Report on SCMS Scholarly Interest Groups
A list of all Scholarly Interest Groups within the Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Philip Scepanski on Twitter 
2011 TV Comedy Conference at University of Wisconsin—Madison
Comedy and Humor Studies Scholarly Interest Group (only on Facebook for now)
Daniel Reynolds’ page at Emory University 
Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group 
Ralph Baer, "The Father of Video Games,” on Wikipedia 
Austin Fisher’s homepage 
Transnational Cinemas Scholarly Interest Group 
Martin Johnson’s page at Catholic University 
Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group 
Circulation Desk: A Project of Non-Theatrical Film and Media 
What We're Watching
