Far-Flung Families in Film

Daniela Berghahn provides a timely, wide-ranging, and engaging analysis of diasporic family films made by key directors from around the world living in Europe and identifies a new European cinema in the new multicultural Europe. * Hamid Naficy, author of An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking *
‘Berghahn’s engaging style, the range of her material and the depth of analysis make this a refreshing contribution to the field. This is a fascinating and timely volume which will appeal to academics, but ought also to reach a wider audience interested in contemporary cinema.’ -- Alexandra Lloyd, University of Oxford * Journal of Contemporary European Studies *
‘Daniela Berghahn exhibits here her characteristic ability to provide an overview of a large and complicated topic with clarity, theoretical insight, and scholarly erudition. In five chapters plus an introduction, Berghahn discusses the development of a genre that is interconnected with the history of labor migration, asylum, and exile…Its multilingual bibliography is itself an excellent tool to foster transnational and truly European models of research. The clarity of writing style and the breadth of the discussion make it appropriate for multiple levels, including the undergraduate classroom.’ -- Randall Halle * Monatshefte *
‘Berghahn’s monograph offers a valuable contribution to the field of transnational European film studies. Furthermore, having enjoyed the resources offered by an AHRC grant, it benefits from a very useful companion website (farflungfamilies.net) that offers additional material on the films discussed, as well as related podcasts and information. This not only facilitates further its pedagogic use, but also allows it to circulate even more widely and transnationally than the book itself, potentially having an impact not only on further academic studies of diasporic cinema but also on the filmmaking community itself, inspiring the production and circulation of ever more films that address crosscultural themes and issues.’ -- Lydia Papadimitriou * Screen, 562 Summer 2015 *
‘Berghahn’s monograph offers a valuable contribution to the field of transnational European film studies. Furthermore, having enjoyed the resources offered by an AHRC grant, it benefits from a very useful companion website (farflungfamilies.net) that offers additional material on the films discussed, as well as related podcasts and information. This not only facilitates further its pedagogic use, but also allows it to circulate even more widely and transnationally than the book itself, potentially having an impact not only on further academic studies of diasporic cinema but also on the filmmaking community itself, inspiring the production and circulation of ever more films that address crosscultural themes and issues.’ -- Lydia Papadimitriou * Screen, 562 Summer 2015 *
Far-Flung Families in Film explores the conflicted tensions sustaining its key terms "diasporic" and "family". Giving full scope to the centrifugal and centripetal forces at work, Daniela Berghahn admirably proves that the "transnational turn" has energized not only filmmakers, but invigorated debate among the academic community as well. * Thomas Elsaesser, author of European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood *
The beautifully illustrated Far-Flung Families in Film is a milestone in the study of diasporic film and ‘accented cinema’ (Hamid Naficy), and it also marks a particularly original and much-needed contribution to transnational cinema studies. I would warmly recommend Daniela Berghahn’s book to scholars, students, makers, promoters and critics of film as well as to learned cinema-goers. -- Márta Minier, University of South Wales * Transnational Cinemas *
‘The beautifully illustrated Far-Flung Families in Film is a milestone in the study of diasporic film and ‘accented cinema’ (Hamid Naficy), and it also marks a particularly original and much-needed contribution to transnational cinema studies. I would warmly recommend Daniela Berghahn’s book to scholars, students, makers, promoters and critics of film as well as to learned cinema-goers.’ -- Márta Minier, University of South Wales * Transnational Cinemas *