Animals in film

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. Jonathan Burt points out that the mobility of animals presented technical and conceptual challenges to early film-makers, the solutions to 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 past and present. Burt looks at the extraordinary relationship 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.

Availability at HKSYU Library

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Location	Call number	Status
English Book (4/F)	791.43662 BUR 2002	Available