Intellect North America

As 2009 sees Intellect making inroads into a stronger US and Canadian presence, our North American website, www.intellectbooks.com, is now up and running!

We invite North American authors, editors and readers to visit the site for information about upcoming releases and book, journal and ebook order information. You'll also be able to find details of how to submit a proposal for a new book or journal under the 'Publish With Us' tab. The website features links to our US distributor, The University of Chicago Press, as well as Google Book Search and Amazon Search Inside programmes and our Facebook group.

Visit www.intellectbooks.com today!

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CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS FOR ECREA BOOK SERIES

The Series Editors of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) invite the submission of book proposals for the ECREA Book Series:

WHO is invited to submit?
A clear preference is given to edited volumes that provide an overview of the work of the ECREA membership. At the same time, a degree of openness towards non-ECREA members is also considered to add value to the Book Series. For this reason, at least 50% of the chapters need to originate from ECREA members (individual members, or members through an institutional membership). For the same reason, at least one of the editors needs to be an ECREA member.

WHAT are we seeking?
ECREA Book Series Publications need to have a very clear theme on which they focus and which needs to be related to the focal points of ECREA (as described in article 3 of the ECREA statutes - see the ECREA website http://www.ecrea.eu). Although the series is open to the wide diversity of disciplines and subjects present among ECREA members, editorial choices will also take into account the potential audience of a proposed book.

What is the deadline for submissions?
Proposals need to be sent to the series editors (by regular mail or email) before 31 December, 2008 (17:00 GMT).

WHO subsidises the publication?
Each year, ECREA subsidises one publication. The ECREA Book Series editors will be in charge of selecting this publication. Their selection will be confirmed by a decision of the ECREA Executive Board.

Other publications may also be included in the ECREA Book Series. In this case, the editors will need to provide the necessary subsidies for the publication of the manuscript and for distributing a copy to each ECREA member. The inclusion of the book in the ECREA Book Series will still be dependant upon the decision of the ECREA Book Series editors and the Executive Board.

A more detailed version of the procedure is available at the 'Members only' segment of the ECREA website (http://www.ecrea.eu).

HOW should one submit a proposal or manuscript?
A form to submit a book proposal is available at the 'Members only' segment of the ECREA website (http://www.ecrea.eu). The form can be found in the DocArchive, in the folder "book series". The document is called "application form for book proposals." Only this form can be used for submitting a book proposal.

TO WHOM should it be sent?
Book proposals and manuscripts can be sent by regular mail or e-mail (attachment in .rtf, or .pdf format) to:

Nico Carpentier
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
Communication Studies Department - SCOM
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: Nico.Carpentier@vub.ac.be

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Viva Viva AVPHD exhibition

We recently attended the Viva Viva AVPHD exhibition held at the University of Westminster on the evening of 8th December.

The exhibition was held in a stunning converted engineering construction hall called the P3 Gallery at the University of Westminster, near Baker Street. The event showcased the work of 20 audiovisual PhD students, many of whose work featured in the most recent issue of our Journal of Media Practice (9.3) guest edited by Tony Dowmunt.

It was an opportunity for the students and their lecturers (or lecturers involved in related courses at other institutions) to showcase their Audio visual installations. Drawing from cultural studies, fine art, anthropology and new media, there were displays of videos, films, audio-visual installations and their written theses. The event was sponsored by the University of Exeter and London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise.

The AVPhD network is an AHRC funded training and support network for all those doing, supervising and examining audio-visual practice based doctorates. The practice research projects it covers centre on audio-visual time based media, inclusive but not restricted to documentary, fiction, narrative/non-narrative film, and non-linear/new media.

For more info, visit the AV PhD website: http://www.avphd.ac.uk/index.php

The event provided a good opportunity to meet with our authors and editors in the fields of media and art practice and to promote our books and journals in these areas. See above left, a photo of our stand at the event, and right, a shot of the gallery space featuring some of the installations.

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Media & Values nominated for Communications Policy Research Award

The book Media & Values: Intimate Transgressions in a Changing Moral and Cultural Landscape by David E Morrison, Matthew Kieran, Michael Svennig and Sarah Ventress has been nominated for a Communications Policy Research Award. Each year, the McGannon Center at Fordham University, New York presents the Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Policy Research to the most notale book addressing issues of communications policy published during the previous year.

Further information on the award can be found at: http://tiny.cc/JSuHL

We'd like to wish the authors good luck!

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An Interview with the BFI Filmstore Manager, Ian Ryan

What kind of collaboration is there between the bookshop and the British Film Institute (BFI)?

All profits made by the Filmstore go back into the BFI and the work it promotes. We get a lot of support from all the different departments. For example, the Programming and Events teams have been really good in helping promote the Filmstore by encouraging guests to either take part in signings, or by opening doors to suppliers and distributors of interesting books and films. Having access to the more independent and interesting releases allows us to stay attractive, and helps set us apart from other outlets. Another department that has played a key role in our success is education.

Can you describe some of the key differences between working directly with independent publishers compared with big multinational publishers?

To be honest for me there’s been little difference between the two. I suppose this is my chance to champion the role of the rep no matter whom they work for, be it the large multinational or the small independent. If I were to give any advice to small independent shops it would be to make sure you work with your rep, make the most of them as they have a lot to offer. In the current climate they need us as much as we need them.

What are the biggest challenges facing independent bookshops in the future?

In one word ‘Amazon’. I understand that Amazon can work on the basis of a 15% margin but it doesn’t help when a customer can buy books cheaper from Amazon than I can buy them from the publisher. In my opinion what publishers have allowed with Amazon is a complete undervaluing of their product. It’s difficult for us with all these advantages so I really feel for the small booksellers out there. It’s not all bad though – Amazon does have its ‘Achilles heel’, which is its size. It has too much to choose from. The role of a good bookshop is to siphon out the rubbish and offer the products that the customer is looking for. Also, it lacks the personal aspects that a lot of people find important.

To read this article in full, download IQ magazine from our website: www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/IQ7.pdf

Stockholders of Intellect's books:

The BFI Filmstore:
Belvedere Road, South Bank,
Waterloo, London, SE1 8XT
T: 0207 815 1350
E: filmstore@bfi.org.uk
W: http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/

London Review Bookshop (LRB)
14 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL
T: 020 7269 9030
E: books@lrbshop.co.uk
W: www.lrbshop.co.uk

The Arnolfini (Bristol)
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA
T: 0117 917 2304
E: bookshop@arnolfini.org.uk
W: www.arnolfini.org.uk

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA):

The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
T: 0207 766 1452
E: bookshop@ica.org.uk
W: www.ica.org.uk

Our books can be ordered through all UK and European bookshops via our distributor, Gardners: www.gardners.com

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Award finalist

The book Australian Post-War Documentary Film: An Arc of Mirrors by Deane Williams
was a finalist in the Best Monograph category of the Film and History Association of New Zealand and Australia Research and Writing Awards 2008.

Further information on the award can be found at:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/fhaanz2008/awards.html

Congratulations to Deane!

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Festive Film Offer

Indulge your mind this holiday season with Intellect’s festive film offer. If you subscribe to one of Intellect’s film journals over the festive period you will receive a film book of your choice absolutely free. With over 35 film books and 14 film journals to choose from, don’t delay, visit our website http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk and start deciding which film book and journal combination you want today.

To subscribe and claim your free book, please email marketing@intellectbooks.com

Don’t miss out – this spectacular offer will run for the limited period of December 1st 2008 until January 31st 2009.

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ECREA conferencehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Intellect will be attending the ECREA conference in Barcelona 25th-28th November 2008. The 2nd European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Conference aims to bring together specialists studying the role of communications and media in society, with a special emphasis on European challenges. The conference will deal with a broad range of topics, from philosophy, history, the economics of communication and innovations in reception studies to research into the relationship between media and society, such as its impact on democracy, migrations, sustainable development, identities and cultural diversity.

The main focus of the conference, Communication Policies and Culture in Europe, is one of great importance. By focusing on this theme, the conference aims to contribute to questions surrounding the development of communication policies (regulation, impulse, etc) for European culture in the face of the new globalisation challenges.

In addition, the local committee will seek to address a range of topics of general interest in Europe by inviting contributions of Spanish academics. This will include matters of education and communication, local media and communication, and academic collaboration between Europe and Latin America.

As well as meeting with authors, editors and academics in the field, Intellect will be promoting media and culture titles at the conference. Especially relevant will be Intellect's ECREA Series including the recently published, Finding the Right Place on the Map: Central and Eastern European Media Change in a Global Perspective edited by Karol Jakubowicz and Miklós Sükösd and the forthcoming Press Freedom and Pluralism in Europe Concepts and Conditions edited by Andrea Czepek, Melanie Hellwig and Eva Nowak.


For more information on the conference, visit:
http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org

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Latest Issue of IQ – out now!

IQ magazine is available to download from our website now. IQ lets you in on all the latest releases and what the authors, editors and publishers at Intellect have to say! Why not take a look at what IQ has to offer this winter…

Hear what it is that makes Intellect stand out from the crowd in an exclusive interview with Intellect’s Journals Manager, Ravi Butalia: 'As we grow and mature as a company, we are realizing that the privilege of publishing cutting-edge academic research goes hand in hand with deep-rooted social responsibility.’

Read relevant and up-to-date articles, including 'Unsung Heroes: New Musical Theatre & the Creative Industries' in which editors of Studies in Musical Theatre, Dominic Symonds and George Burrows, discuss the state of musical theatre today; Piers Plowright interviews the editors of the The Soundtrack and art fans won't want to miss the book focus article on Art, Community and Environment.

To download your copy, go to www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/IQ7.pdf or email us on info@intellectbooks.com to order a free paper copy, which is due out in a few weeks.

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Drawing Research Network Conference

On the 12th November, Intellect will be attending the Drawing Research Group/Drawing Research Network Collaborative one day conference at the Loughborough University School of Art and Design.

The Drawing Research Group actively promotes drawing through a variety of research initiatives and the membership share interests in the subject from a variety of standpoints, resulting in both individual and collaborative outcomes. The conference provides Intellect with a good opportunity to promote our growing collection of titles on drawing, art and design such as the recently published Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research edited by Steve Garner, and to meet with editors, authors and academics in the field.

Main speakers at the event will include:

• Brian Fay, Head of Fine Art, Dublin Institute of Technology.
• Andrew Hewish, Centre for Recent Drawing, London.
• Angela Anning, Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Leeds.

Please contact Steve Garner to book places and obtain further details: S.W.Garner@open.ac.uk

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EBL Ebook promotion

Save up to 60% on Intellect Books titles on EBL

Contact: info@eblib.com
Website: http://www.eblib.com/
We are offering a range of special discounts on titles purchased through EBL. This special limited promotion offers a wide range of selection choices and the more titles you purchase, the more you save.

Full Title List Discount
Receive substantial discount when you purchase the entire list of Intellect Books’ titles.

• 60% off list price when purchasing Intellect's entire list - 149 titles

Select Subject List Discount:

Purchase any of Intellect Books’ select subject lists at half price.

• 50% off list price when purchasing any complete subject list (subjects listed below).

Film Studies: 33 titles
Art& Design: 20 titles
Theatre & Music: 26 titles
Media & Culture: 44 titles

Pick and Mix Discount:

You can choose to ‘pick-mix’ from the 149 titles and save. The more titles you select, the more you save.

• 35% off any list of 50-75 Intellect Books titles
• 45% off any list of 75 or more Intellect Books Titles

About Ebook Library (EBL)
With over 85,000+ titles in digital format, EBL offers a range of flexible acquisition and access options for academic, research and corporate libraries. Libraries can purchase titles either direct with EBL or through a growing number of international partners – including Blackwell Books and YBP.

To order and see the lists of titles in full, visit:

http://www.eblib.com/offers.asp

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Frankfurt Book Fair

The world's biggest book fair took place between 15-19th October 2008 in Frankfurt. This year's guest of honour at the fair was Turkey.

Our Book Publishing Assistant, Melanie Harrison, attended the fair on behalf of Intellect. She met with distributors and ebooks providers as well as prospective clients and authors, and the fair proved to be a great success. Intellect were situated on the shared IPG stand in Hall 8.0 amongst all the international publishers. We displayed the book: Art, Community and Environment on one shelf of the stand.

For further information about this and next year's Frankfurt Book fair, visit: http://www.buchmesse.de/en/

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Upcoming Conference

BPB 2008 Conference

MEMORY OF FIRE: THE WAR OF IMAGES AND IMAGES OF WAR
Saturday 15th November 2008

A one day conference programmed by Julian Stallabrass, Curator BPB 2008, organised by BPB 2008 and with support from the University of Brighton explores the production, distribution and engagement with images of war through photojournalism, contemporary art photography, architecture and the media through referencing newsprint, publishing and online spaces and the art gallery.
A range of international speakers will present including:
Julian Stallabrass – BPB 2008 Curator and Courtauld Institute of Art lecturer
Eyal Weizman – Architectural theorist and Writer
Iain Boal – Historian of Technics and the Commons and member of Retort Collective
Stefaan Decostere – multi-media and online producer for CARGO, curator and artist
Hilary Roberts – Head of Collections Management including photography at Imperial War Museum
Simon Norfolk – artist and photojournalist exhibiting as part of BPB2008 at De La Warr Pavilion
Broomberg and Chanarin – artists exhibiting as part of BPB 2008 at De La Warr Pavilion
Harriet Logan – artist and photojournalist exhibiting as part of BPB2008 at Independent
Photographers’ Gallery
Tom Hickey – Course Leader for the Cultural and Critical MA at the University of Brighton

The day includes in-depth academic papers, artist presentations and in-conversation style dialogues. This is a serious opportunity to explore BPB 2008 through a range of related disciplines and with a focus on photojournalism and contemporary art photographic practice.

Intellect’s Journal of War and Culture Studies is concerned with the way that cultural histories and cultural productions, such as war photography, act as significant forces that shape
experiences, representations and memories of war. Copies of the journal will be available for
delegates to view at this event.

Please see www.bpb.org.uk/2008/events and look up ‘conference’ for full programme details and downloadable pdf.
Conference Venue:
SallisBenney Theatre
University of Brighton
Grand Parade
Brighton

Date: Saturday 15th November
Time: 09.30am – 5.45pm
Admission: £30 £15 (concessions) includes tea/coffee
To book contact: Dome Box Office, 29 New Road, Brighton
T: 01273 709 709. W: www.brightonticketshop.com

(Image: Photograph by Franco Pagetti
An explosion rocks a building in Saddam Hussein’s palace complex in Baghdad, March 21, 2003, during the American ‘Shock and Awe’ air raids that marked the beginning of the occupation of Iraq. The complex on the banks of the Tigris later became what is now known as the Green Zone and houses both the Iraqi legislation as well as key American installations.
© Franco Pagetti / VII From Iraq Through the Lens of Vietnam (University of Brighton Gallery).

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Mark Browning, author of David Cronenberg: Author or Filmmaker?, has contributed one of the text commentaries to a special exhibition, forming part of the 2008 Rome Film Festival. Chromosomes, features fifty specially-enhanced close-ups, all with accompanying commentary, from a range of Cronenberg’s work, spanning over 30 years. It follows previous exhibitions on the work of Peter Greenaway, Michael Nyman and Atom Egoyan, all initiated by Volumina, a cultural body concerned with bringing Art and Film together in new and surprising ways. In 2005, they organised an exhibition to accompany Cronenberg’s lushly-illustrated, limited edition book, Red Cars, featuring a screenplay about the Ferrari dynasty and the battle for the 1961 Formula One championship.

Browning’s commentary complements a still from Spider, one of Cronenberg’s more underrated works. Links between Cronenberg and literature, the focus of Browning’s book, are particularly pertinent, not just in the light of Red Cars but Cronenberg’s keenly-awaited debut as a novelist, due for publication next year, provisionally entitled Consumed.
The exhibition is at the Palazzo della Esposizioni, Via Milano 9A, 00184, Rome and after a premiere on October 21st, is open to the public until November 16th. You can get a taste of it at www.volumina.net.

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Iris Prize Festival

The book launch for Queer Cinema in Europe edited by Robin Griffiths took place on Friday 3rd October at The Iris Prize Festival, Cardiff's International Gay and Lesbian Short Film Prize 2008.

The launch was a great success. Here is a photo from the evening of the book's editor Robin Griffiths (centre) pictured with our representative at the festival, Freya Morris, Journals Assistant (right) and Ceri Sherlock from BBC Wales (left).

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African Media Studies

Subscriptions to the exciting new Journal of African Media Studies (JAMS) are now available from Intellect here. For more information about the journal and how to submit articles and reviews, visit the journal's webpage.

The Journal of African Media Studies is an new interdisciplinary journal published three times a year. It aims to contribute to the on-going re-positioning of media and cultural studies outside the Anglo-American axis. The journal provides new theoretical debates grounded in empirical work and academic literature. It interprets media in a broad sense, incorporating not only formal media such as radio, television, print, internet and mobile telephony but also considers articles on 'informal', 'small' or 'indigenous' media such as music, jokes and theatre. JAMS is revolutionary in its thinking, including colour images, photographs and a book and film review section. The journal is edited by Winston Mano, Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Westminster.

In its first issue, JAMS looks to assess the past and future of African Media Studies in relation to the effects colonialism. It also examines the relationship between media and power, corruption, feminism and capitalism. Music is also a key topic, as lyrics often mirror politics and are an important communication tool in a continent with high levels of illiteracy. Volume 1. Issue 1 features articles such as: 'Music advocacy, the media and the Malawi political public sphere, 1958–2007' by John Lwanda and 'The politics of corruption and the media in Africa' by Helge Rønning.

If you are considering an institutional subscription, email freya@intellectbooks.com for a free sample copy.

Free online access is available for the first issue here.

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Author of 'Performing the Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring' speaks at film festival

As part of the Compass of Mystery Festival in Bristol, author of Intellect's book Performing the Dark Arts: A Cultural History Michael Mangan is concluding an exciting evening of magic and illusion events by discussing and introducing Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige:

Screening of The Prestige (12) (Nolan, 2006, 130min) & Introduction
A dark drama about two rival magicians (Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman), so committed to their art that they will fight for supremacy to the death, or so it seems... This adaptation of Christopher Priest‘s novel is a murky and mysterious tale that twists and meanders through the dark streets of late-19th Century London, skirting stranger horizons before winding back to its perplexing, terrifying finale. The film will be introduced by Michael Mangan, academic expert on magic, magicianship and conjury.

This event takes place on Saturday 11 October, 18.30–22.30, £4 / £3 at Mivart Street Studios, Mivart Street, Easton, Bristol.

Directions can be found here:

http://www.compass-film.co.uk/index.php?id=61

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Book Launch

The Iris Prize Festival, Cardiff's International Gay and Lesbian Short Film Prize 2008, takes place this week (2^nd – 4^th October).

As part of the proceedings, Friday 3rd October at 17.30 sees the long-awaited launch of our new title Queer Cinema in Europe. The launch takes place at the Atrium, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, Adam Street, Cardiff, CF24 2XF (click here for directions).

During the course of the launch, Robin Griffiths will discuss his new edited book, Queer Cinema in Europe with Ceri Sherlock, Commissioning Executive, Arts BBC Wales in a one hour Q & A session. Copies of the book will be available to buy from Intellect's stand at the event - there will also be information about Intellect and promotional material at the stand - so come and say hello!

The new book, edited by Griffiths, draws together a number of accessible and insightful essays that explore, for the first time, an exciting new area of academic analysis and debate. Through case studies of key films and film-makers, the contributors to this volume resituate discussions of queer representation and desire within a diverse and divergent European context. The book raises many provocative questions about understandings of gender, sexuality and identity in film that spill across a variety of national borders, cultures and traditions.

For more information about the event, go to:
http://www.irisprize.org/index.html

(If you attended this event, tell us what you thought by posting a comment on the blog!)

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Autumn Conferences update!

So far this September we've already attended 4 conferences in a variety of subject areas:

Between 1st-3rd September we were at the University of Edinburgh for UACES, an annual media and politics conference. This year's theme was Rethinking the European Union. See right for a striking shot of Intellect's stand at the event.

We also set up stand at the fourth annual TAPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) conference held at the University of Leeds between 3rd and 5th September. This conference was a chance for a themed open discussion across small working groups and was also a great opportunity for post-graduate students to gain confidence and exchange their ideas with other theatre and performance scholars. The conference included workshops from expert academics, the TAPRA AGM and a public presentation by Ukrainian theatre director Andriy Zholdak.


In the same week, we attended the BERA (British Educational Research Association) Annual Conference at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. This large, international conference was a superb chance to promote our art and design education titles. Left is a photo of Intellect's stand in the
exhibition space.

Finally, we headed down to the University of Reading to attend the Continuity & Innovation Contemporary Film Form and Film Criticism held at the University of Reading over 5–7 September. This conference aimed to consider the critical challenges contemporary film form poses for film critics and theorists, in an approach rooted in the detail of the film text itself. Filmmakers Stephen Frears and Birgit Grosskopf also attended the conference and spoke about their work.

Here is a photo of the Intellect stand in the foyer outside the Myra McCulloch Lecture Theatre at Bulmershe Campus.





Upcoming conferences include the Media@LSE fifth anniversary conference, Media, Communication and Humanity in London 22-23rd September and in October we'll be heading to Bangor in North Wales for the Creating Second Lives: Reading and Writing Virtual Communities.

To see all recent posts about related conferences and attendance, please click on the link ‘Conference’ on the sidebar under ‘Categories’.

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Film International at Borders

From 27th August, Borders bookstores (www.bordersstores.co.uk) across the country will be promoting the latest issue of Film International.
Volume 6 Issue 4 of the bi-monthly, full colour magazine will be available at the special offer price of just £3!

Film International covers all aspects of film culture in a visually dynamic way. This new breed of film publication brings together established film scholars with renowned journalists to provide an informed and animated commentary on the spectacle of world cinema. The latest issue features articles on international film festivals, reviews of The Strangers and My Blueberry Nights, a look at travelling projectionist films and open-air screenings. Get down to your nearest Borders store today to buy your copy!

There are also HALF PRICE student subscriptions to Film International available at http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/discjournals.php?issn=16516826!

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