Ep. 52: Reality Matters (December, 2019)
In the depths of winter, we take you to warm, sunny Italy! Our intrepid host Chris Becker, apparently unsure how to order “pizza” in Italian, nonetheless bravely heads to Matera in order to talk with documentarians Chiara Ferrari and Quinn Winchell about cultural tourism in Matera (the setting for films from James Bond to Passion of the Christ). We then re-air the 2014 Fieldnotes segment with influential film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, who passed away in December, 2019. Finally, Michael and Chris banter about the year in media and politics, including the role of universities in social justice activism.
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LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE
Opening Banter
New York Times Privacy Project
”ABC Interrupts 'All in the Family' and 'Good Times' Live Due to Impeachment Proceedings”
Survivor: Sexual Harassment Island
Donald Trump Michigan Rally Transcript
Matera Segment
Chiara Ferrari and Quinn Winchell
Matera Wikipedia page
Films Shot in Matera
No Time to Dietrailer
Smithsonian: “How Matera Went From Ancient Civilization to Slum to a Hidden Gem”
The Guardian: “The miracle of Matera: from city of poverty and squalor to hip hub for cave-dwellers” and Matera: Italy’s Magical City of Stone
The New Yorker: “A Cave with a View: Matera, once seen as uncivilized, is now prized for its ancient ways”
LA Times: “Matera, from Italy’s national disgrace to European Cultural Capital”
Matera 2019: Architecture of Shame
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Vision of Matera
University Faculty Awarded Prestigious Lantis Endowments
Thomas Elsaesser Segment
Complete Fieldnotes Segment
Thomas Elsaesser’s website and on Wikipedia
Thomas Elsaesser’s author page at Amazon
Film History as Media Archaeology: Tracking Digital Cinema
European Cinema and Continental Philosophy
“Subject Positions, Speaking Positions: From HOLOCAUST and HEIMAT to SHOAH and SCHINDLER'S LIST”
Joe McElhaney pays tribute to Thomas Elsaesser
Closing Banter
Matt Gertz, Media Matters, "President Trump’s Fox obsession reshaped the political universe in 2019"
Frederic Jameson Wikipedia Entry
"Five strike days announced at Coventry University in appraisals row"
Mark Stewart on Twitter
“University strike: tens of thousands of staff walk out across UK”
June 2018 Aca-Media episode on UCU strike
"How Universities Became the New Battlegrounds in the Hong Kong Protests"
"India protests: students condemn 'barbaric' police"
"The End Hate at ND movement lives"
"Divine Awakening" from Notre Dame undergraduate Savanna Morgan