Jason Middleton, <i>Documentary’s Awkward Turn: Cringe Comedy and Media Spectatorship<i/>

Authors

  • Cortland Rankin New York University

Keywords:

Documentary, Spectatorship, Comedy

Author Biography

Cortland Rankin, New York University

Cortland Rankin is an ABD Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. He received an MPhil in Screen Media and Cultures from the University of Cambridge in 2008 and a BA in American Studies from Northwestern University in 2007. His research interests include the cinematic representation of urban space and architecture and the role of cinema and media in military conflict and cultures of militarism.  Cortland’s doctoral dissertation, “Imaging Urban Decay: Cinemas of Crisis and Reappropriation in New York Cinema, 1965-85” examines diverse interpretations of the cultural notion of “urban decay” across various modes of cinema, from mainstream Hollywood to independent narrative, documentary, and avant-garde films, during a period of widely perceived socioeconomic decline in the history of New York City. Interpreting decay as both a social and organic phenomenon, the dissertation focuses specifically on the thematic and imagistic roles of derelict urban spaces and nature in New York-set films of this era. As both an adjunct instructor and teaching assistant at NYU, the New School, Hunter College, and the College of Staten Island, Cortland has taught courses on cinema and the city, war cinema, American film history, silent cinema, as well as several broad entry-level Introduction to Cinema Studies and Film History classes. 

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Published

2015-04-30

Issue

Vol. 9 (2015)

Section

Book Reviews

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