Anne Ciecko

My current and ongoing research interests are focused on international cinema, primarily non-western cinema (Cinemas of the Global South)--especially Arab, Asian, and African cinema; international co-productions; diasporic audiences; international transmedia stardom and celebrity; international film festivals; Afropop and Arabpop music and film; intercultural film/video and multimedia installations by women. My writing has appeared in the following academic journals and arts publications: Afterimage, Asian Cinema, Asian Journal of Communication, Cinema Journal, Cinemaya, Film Quarterly, History, Journal of Film and Video, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, Literature/Film Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Spectator: Journal of Film and Television Criticism, Tamkang Review, Velvet Light Trap, and others. My authored or coauthored articles have been published in the anthologies Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (New York University Press, 2007), Global Currents: Media and Technology Now (Rutgers University Press, 2004), Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers (Routledge, 2002, and the 2nd edition Fifty Contemporary Film Directors, 2010), Transnational Chinese Cinemas (University of Hawaii, 1997), and others. I am also editor of the book Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame (Berg, 2006) and a special issue of the journal Quarterly Review of Film and Video on the International Film Star (Volume 19.1, 2002).

Core faculty member in the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies and Coordinator of the Graduate Certificate in Film Studies. For more details about the Graduate Certificate in Film Studies and the Interdepartmental Program in Film please see www.umass.edu/film.

PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Undergraduate: Film Festival Colloquium; Contemporary World Cinema, Art, Community, and Cultural Diversity; International Film Stardom; Arab Cinema, Asian Pop Cinema. Graduate: Introduction to Film Theory, Questions of National Cinema, Global Stardom and Celebrity, Global Cinema Cities, Film/Video Curating and Public Programming, Feminist Film Theory, Gender and Intercultural Film and Video.

Anne Ciecko, entries on "Moustapha Akkad" (p. 14), "Waha Al-Raheb" (27), "Bader Ben Hirsi," (58-59), "BerlinBeirut" (62), "How's it Going?"(Keif al hal?, 184), "Jordan" (220-222), "Khaled/Cheb Khaled" (228), "Izidore Musallam" (289), "A New Day in Old Sana'a" (303), "Reel Bad Arabs" (335), "Saudi Arabia" (355-357), "Nadine Toukan" (394-395), "United Arab Emirates" (409-410), "Yemen" (428-429), in Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema, edited by T. Ginsberg and C. Lippard (Scarecrow Press, 2010)

Anne Ciecko, "Simple Stories for a Complicated World: An Interview with Filmmaker Izidore Musallam," Asian Cinema Vol.20 No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2009): 166-181. [See also my recent interviews with Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan (Jump Cut No. 51 Spring 2009 http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc51.2009/RoystonTanInt./index.html), Indonesian filmmakers Riri Riza and Rudy Soedjarwo ( Asian Cinema  17.1 Spring/Summer 2006: 90-107), and the director and producer of Yemen's first feature film A New Day in Old Sana'a (Asian Cinema  17.2 Fall/Winter 2006:26-31)]

Anne Ciecko, "Digital Territories and States of Independence: Jordan's Film Scenes," Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism 36.5 (March/April, 2009): 3-6. [See also my earlier article, "Situating Jordanian Cinema: A Report on Contemporary Film Culture(s) in Amman," Asian Cinema (Fall/Winter 2007): 303-309.]

Anne Ciecko and Hunju Lee, "Visible ‘waves': notes on Koreanness, pan-Asianness, and some recent Southeast Asian art films," Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media  No. 51 (Spring 2009) http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc51.2009/VisibleWaves/index.html [See also a different recent case study by Anne Ciecko and Hunju Lee, "Han Suk-kyu and the Cultural Economy of Stardom and Fandom in Contemporary Korean Cinema,"  Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, eds. Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington (New York University Press, 2007), pp.220-231]

Anne Ciecko, 2006-2008: festival report coverage of the Cairo International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Hong Kong International Film Festival/Film Scene Conference at the University of Hong Kong, the Pusan International Film Festival, Fukuoka Focus on Asia Film Festival in Afterimage, Asian Cinema, Cinemaya [India], and Quarterly Review of Film and Video: "Festival Focus on Asia" (Fukuoka, Pusan, Dubai, Rotterdam), Afterimage: The Journal of Media Art and Cultural Criticism March/April 2006: 10-11; "Report: International Film Festival Rotterdam 2006," Quarterly Review of Film and Video 23.3 (2006): 281-286; "Report: The Hong Kong 'Film Scene': The Seen and the Unseen", Cinemaya: The Asian Film Magazine  Vol 1 No.3 (2006): 31; "Bridges Between: Reflections on Dubai and its International Film Festival"; Asian Cinema 17.2 (Fall/Winter 2006): 17-25; "Globe-spotting" [International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008], Afterimage 35.5 March/April 2008: 2-3.

Anne Ciecko, three chapters for my edited book Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame(Berg, February 2006): "Introduction to Contemporary Popular Asian Cinema" (pp.1-11),"Film Theory and Asian Cinema" (13-31),"Cinematic Cycles of Glory and Grief in Postmodern Post-Handover Hong Kong" (169-181).

Works in progress: projects on conceptualizing world cinema and Cinemas of the Global South, and emerging and resurging national cinemas in Arab countries; international film festival coverage; articles on Asian and African transmedia stars. I also curate the annual fall film series, New Asia Cinema and Arab Cinema Panorama, on alternate years, and am currently doing archival research on the life of an Arab American woman film pioneer with local connections for a special public event. My work encompasses film studies pedagogy, academic research, film/video curating and public programming, film criticism and arts/culture writing.