Papers by Michelle L Farrell
Transmodernity , 2023
I offer a close look at the Cuban film El matadero, which premiered virtually in December 2021 fr... more I offer a close look at the Cuban film El matadero, which premiered virtually in December 2021 from Havana via the 2nd annual streaming INSTAR Cuban Film Festival. In this documentary, independent Cuban director Fraguela Fosado combines a pastiche of digital modes to tell the personal story of two friends: one on the island -the filmmaker himself -and one off. I argue that the film’s uniqueness is in its use of digital and geographic spaces to capture Ana López’s concept of a “Greater Cuba.” I examine how the on-island filmmaker co-creates a platform with his off-island interlocutor enabling collaborative authorship through the use of the digital platform WhatsApp. In doing so, the film explores the friendship between the two young men through memory, archives, memes, and a particularly Cuban sense of humor. The result is a film that achieves a personal narrative of contemporary Cubanness across a digital diaspora both in the making of, the plot, and its subsequent distribution trajectory.
Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, 2021
We are three women with a collective 51 years of service as faculty members at our university, tr... more We are three women with a collective 51 years of service as faculty members at our university, trying to write our sabbatical reports for Spring 2020. It's tempting to make them very brief: "We survived." And with one important exception, the people we cared about survived too. We are still surviving. But there is more. We came together as sabbaticalers on Saturday, March 28, when Beth sent an email to our small group with the subject line "Sabbaticaling in the Time of Corona" and a short message: "I've been thinking of you both. Would you be up for a Caffeine During Quarantine check-in via Zoom? If so, let me know and I'll set something up for us." Shannon responded within the hour, Michelle the next day, and our tiny band was formed.
TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 2016
Cuban filmmaker Yaima Pardo creates a participatory digital literacy campaign in her documentary ... more Cuban filmmaker Yaima Pardo creates a participatory digital literacy campaign in her documentary OFF_LINE (2013) and documentary series SWITCH ON (2013-present). Through her work she establishes a multi-directional dialogue on digital literacy. Beyond this call for digital literacy, Pardo herself is part of a contemporary generation of Cuban filmmakers, nuevos realizadores that depend on digital technology to make, distribute and exhibit their works despite their illegal status as the Cuban state does not recognize their independent production companies. Challengingover fivedecades of control, Pardo and her peers are part of a larger national fight to redefine Cuban film. Before clicking on Yaima Pardo's open-access, streaming documentary OFF_LINE (2013), the audience sees a message printed on the t-shirt of the initial shot "Cub@ Zon@ Libre de Internet." This is not the establishing shot of the celebrated documentary, OFF_LINE, winner of the UNESCO's Cameras of Diversity Prize in 2013, as well as the 2013 Brownstone Foundation's Noemí Film Award. Instead, it is the image that the computer user sees upon accessing the documentary on the alternative distribution platform Vimeo. This initial shot, that reappears in the body of the film, creates a direct dialogue with one of the most praised
Mester, 2010
In this collection of testimonies Venezuelan community leaders share the history of popular movem... more In this collection of testimonies Venezuelan community leaders share the history of popular movements in Venezuela that pre-date the Chavez administration. These testimonies also reveal the continuous compromises and challenges with the current administration defying the over-simplified representation of Venezuelan popular movements. The testimonies show a complicated Venezuelan reality that the mainstream media frequently overlooks with its exclusive focus on Chavez.
Since 1959, the Cuban state has invested in the celebrated Film Institute (ICAIC) supporting some... more Since 1959, the Cuban state has invested in the celebrated Film Institute (ICAIC) supporting some of Latin America's most acclaimed works in fictional film and documentary, including Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968) and Por primera vez (1967). The short documentary Por primera vez captures the country's commitment to cinema, and the far-reaches of the ICAIC, as the film observes the experience of rural audiences watching a film for the first time. The endearing images and interviews show the rural community as innocent, simple, and passive. Despite the success of the groundbreaking films like Por primera vez, researchers have revealed that focusing primarily on the state's centralized Havana-based ICAIC Film Institute does not represent the vastness of Cuban filmmaking (Arcos, Dieguez, Farrell, Garcia Borrero, and Stock). This article further expands the discussion of filmmaking beyond both the ICAIC and Havana by examining the children's national film initiative Ca...
The Latin Americanist, 2016
The Venezuelan state's active role in the film industry during the Chávez years resulted in contr... more The Venezuelan state's active role in the film industry during the Chávez years resulted in controversy both within and beyond Venezuela. With an aggressive national film law, and new state film institutions, the turn to film caused an unprecedented boom in Venezuelan filmmaking and a flood of press coverage. Chávez's public announcements celebrated the government's active investment in filmmaking likening the venture in film with a break from the past. I explore how the Venezuelan government under Chávez both ruptured with the previous relationship between the film industry and the government while also continued with past state film initiatives despite revolutionary discourse. While much of the research and press on Venezuelan film under Chávez often focuses on the institution that Chávez praised most, the politically aligned and controversial Villa del Cine (2006), I show that the well-known Villa does not entirely represent the role of the state in supporting Venezuelan film during the Chávez years. The Villa is part of the much larger understudied National Film Platform. With a close look at three of the state film institutions from the Platform, I examine the complex workings of the state/film relationship under Chávez hovering between continuing and breaking with the past. Introduction: On June 4, 2006, during his weekly unscripted, and famously lengthy television program, Aló, Presidente [Hello, President], President Hugo Chávez announced the Venezuelan government's investment in film and, more specifically, in a new national film production company La Villa del Cine. He proposed that the government's decision to support and invest in Venezuelan filmmaking was not only about making movies. On air Chávez explained: Venezuelan film will be for the world, as Bolívar said: "Weapons of thought"artillery of our culture, artillery of our essence…we are going to make quality movies! (Aló Presidente, Programa 257) In the above quote Chávez makes an allusion to two key moments in Venezuelan and Latin American history. First by evoking the single most celebrated figure in Latin
As the study of liberal arts, and college education, come under attack in the twenty-first centur... more As the study of liberal arts, and college education, come under attack in the twenty-first century, we scramble to add new aspects to our curriculum to remain relevant to contemporary demands. In the liberal arts, and college teaching in general, professors carefully craft the class session to weave the invisible background workings of a course to provide the best possible learning experience for students. In the face of this crisis of relevance, the classroom space itself is an ideal place to empower students by making visible the behind the scenes work that we do in the classroom. By making this work visible we are empowering liberal arts students with the language necessary to understand their active role in the classroom. In this session I will discuss the classroom as a space to empower students to better understand what it is they do in the liberal arts classroom, while also sharing with students the language that they will need to talk about their relevant and transferable college experiences
Delaware Review of Latin American Studies, 2014
With the introduction of inexpensive and digital filmmaking alternatives a young generation of Cu... more With the introduction of inexpensive and digital filmmaking alternatives a young generation of Cuban filmmakers is creating a distance from the centralized state ICAIC using non-theatrical distribution, and digital technology to change the audiovisual landscape. I explore how young filmmaker Aram Vidal has added another dimension to this generation creating critical films on Cuban identity and its diaspora from within Cuba and abroad. I argue that through films like Vidal’s this generation is re-defining what Anderson calls Cuba’s imaginary community to include a more fluid definition of Cuban identity, while also challenging the definition of film and the audiovisual field.
Luso-Brazilian Review, 2011
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 1999
To develop a brief alcohol and other drug (AOD) screening test for adolescents. Methods: A 9-item... more To develop a brief alcohol and other drug (AOD) screening test for adolescents. Methods: A 9-item test was constructed by combining and modifying items from several AOD assessments, and administered concurrently with the Personal Involvement With Chemicals Scale (PICS), the criterion standard. Setting: A hospital-based adolescent clinic. Subjects: Fourteen-to 18-year-old patients consecutively arriving for routine medical care who were known to have used AOD. Measures: Internal consistency of the 9 items was calculated using the Cronbach ␣. The relationship between the brief screen and PICS raw score was determined by stepwise linear regression analysis. The PICS T score has been shown to correctly classify substance abuse treatment need as no treatment (TϽ35), brief office intervention (T = 35-40), outpatient or short-term treatment (T = 41-54), and inpatient or long-term treatment (TՆ55). Sensitivity and specificity rates for predicting a PICS T score of 55 or higher were calculated from 2 ϫ 2 tables. Results: Ninety-nine adolescents were tested (70.7% female, 36.4% black, 32.3% white, 19.2% Hispanic, mean age, 16.3 years). The 9 items had good internal consistency (Cronbach ␣ = .79). Stepwise linear regression analysis identified 6 items whose total combined score was highly correlated with PICS (Pearson r = 0.84, PϽ.01). This model correctly classified 86% of subjects according to the PICS criteria. Two or more yes answers had a sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 82.1% for intensive AOD treatment need. The 6 items were arranged into a mnemonic (CRAFFT). Conclusions: Further research must confirm the test's psychometric properties in a general clinic population. However, CRAFFT seems promising as a brief AOD screening test.
This article explores how Mariana Rondón’s award-winning Venezuelan film Pelo malo (2013) reveals... more This article explores how Mariana Rondón’s award-winning Venezuelan film Pelo malo (2013) reveals the inner workings of private relationships and language, representing what Bourdieu termed “symbolic violence”. Pelo malo challenges the exponential celebratory boom in Venezuelan state-supported filmmaking as the Chávez administration turned to cinema to narrate the nation. Despite the excitement and increase in state-sponsored filmmaking and the Chávez era’s nation-building discourse, Pelo malo exposes the limits of Chávez’ imagined community in both the film’s plot and its post-production
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Papers by Michelle L Farrell