Animals in Film / Edition 1

by Jonathan Burt

Overview

From Salvador Dalí to Walt Disney, animals have been a constant yet little-considered presence in film. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to learn that animals were a central inspiration to the development of moving pictures themselves.

In Animals in Film, Jonathan Burt points out that the mobility of animals presented technical and conceptual challenges to early film-makers, the solutions of which were an important factor in advancing photographic technology, accelerating the speed of both film and camera. The early filming of animals also marked one of the most significant and far-reaching changes in the history of animal representation, and has largely determined the way animals have been visualized in the twentieth century.

Burt looks at the extraordinary relation-ship between animals, cinema and photography (including the pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge and Jules-Etienne Marey) and the technological developments and challenges posed by the animal as a specific kind of moving object. Animals in Film is a shrewd account of the politics of animals in cinema, of how movies and video have developed as weapons for animal rights activists, and of the roles that animals have played in film, from the avant-garde to Hollywood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781861891310
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	02/03/2003
Series:	Reaktion Books - Locations Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	4.75(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Burt is an independent writer and lives in Cambridge, UK.

Table of Contents

Prologue
1. Film and the History of the Visual Animal
2. Vision and Ethics
3. Animal Life and Death
References
Acknowledgements
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A smart little monograph that ranges across a wide variety of related
topics, including the ethics of using animals in entertainment . . .
Eccentric, but nonetheless intriguing."

Empire Magazine (UK) - Empire Magazine

"Deserves to influence debates about the cultural representation of animals
well beyond the bounds of film studies."

Anthrozo�s

"Deserves to influence debates about the cultural representation of animals
well beyond the bounds of film studies."

Anthrozoös