UC Research Profile - University of Canterbury

Dr Alan Frazer Wright

Contact

Department: English

Email: alan.wright@canterbury.ac.nz

Phone Number: +64 3 369 3999 ext. null

Office: Karl Popper 615

Language: English

About

Research / Creative works

Networks

Projects

Fields of Research

Documentary and the essay film
contemporary world cinema
film, memory studies and the environmental humanities
Film on the Faultline: the earthquake on screen
Modernity. modernism and the avant-garde

Researcher Summary

Cinema is a kind of time machine. I have written about films that explore a dislocated experience of time and space where the past haunts the present or the foreign inhabits the familiar. These concerns are central to Film on the Faultline (July 2015), a collection of essays I have edited which explore how the earthquake, as a material and conceptual event, tests the limits and possibilities of cinema.

i have published essays and articles on Kenneth Anger, Jean-Luc Godard, Alexander Kluge, Andrei Tarkovsky, Andre Bazin, Annie Goldson and Ritchie Venus. My film, Scuppered, was screened at the CRONOGRAF International Documentary festival in the Republic of Moldova.

My teaching and research interests include documentary and the essay film, contemporary world cinema, time, memory, dream and exile in film. Film on the Faultline.

Subject Area: Disciplines

Cultural Studies: Cultural Studies ; Visual Culture
Theatre and Dance, Film and Television and Multimedia: Film
Cinema Studies: Cinema Studies
Resilience: Social: Culture and Heritage

Resources

Staff webpage

Research/Scholarly/Creative Works

Edited Volumes

Wright AF; Ratuva S; Millar P; Meek A; Prentice C (Ed.) (2018) Pacific Dynamics, Special Issue on Memory and the Pacific. Pacific Dynamics 5Christchurch.

Wright A. (2015) Film on the Faultline. Bristol: Intellect Press. 200.

Chapters

Wright A. (2015) Film Studies as Seismic Research. In Wright A (Ed.), Film on the Faultline: 3-19. Bristol: Intellect Press.

Wright A. (2011) Seeing Red in 1949 and 1994. In Bennett JE; Biernie R (Ed.), Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand: 113-118. London and New York: I.B. Tauris.

Wright AF. (2002) Torture in the Name of Cinema: Bazin, Rossellini, Godard. In Berendse GJ; Williams M (Ed.), Terror and Text: Representing Political Violence in Literature and the Visual Arts: 273-287. Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag.

Wright AF. (2000) Elizabeth Taylor at Auschwitz: JLG and the Real Object of Montage. In Temple M; Williams JS (Ed.), The Cinema Alone: Essays on the Work of Jean-Luc Godard 1985-2000: 51-60. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Journal Articles

Wright AF. (2017) The Dub Encounter in New Zealand Film. MEDIANZ: Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand 17(2) 3: 38-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.11157/medianz-vol17iss2id202.

Wright AF. (2016) The Rotten Sea: Andrei Tarkovsky in the Soviet Archive. KinoKultura 53: 5.

Wright A. (2012) JLG/Jean Améry. Screening the Past 35.

Wright A. (2010) Vigilante Fury: Ritchie Venus vs Sam Neill. Illusions 42(Winter 2010): 13-16.

Wright A. (2008) Scuppered: Of Fish and Film. Rouge (12).

Wright AF. (1998) Sentence Fragments: Elements of Style, Postcolonial Edition. Journal of Composition Studies 18(1): 91-103.

Wright A. (1996) A Wrinkle in Time: The Child, Memory and The Mirror. Wide Angle 18(1).

Exhibition/Curatorial Exercises

Wright A. (2012) Films on the Faultline. Platform Arts Festival, Christchurch, New Zealand. 4-6 Oct 2012. [Curator].

Wright AF. (2012) "Films on the Faultline," Platform Arts Festival. Curator and speaker: Alices Cinematheque, Tuam Street, Christchurch. 4-6 Oct 2012. [Film screening].

Wright AF. (2010) The Films of Ritchie Venus. Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu. 30 Oct 2010. [Curator, catalogue editor, moderator and presenter].

Film/Video

Wright A.(2005) Scuppered. [Film - Digital Video]. 33 minutes.

Exhibition/Curatorial Exercises

Wright AF. (2005) Scuppered. Director: New Zealand. 1-1 Jan 2005. [Film - Digital Video].

Conference Contributions - Published

Wright A. (2019) Vertigo Sea: Montage and Monad. In Williams M (Eds). The Time of the Now: Collected Paper: 22-29.

Wright A. (2013) Cinema Grimoire: Kenneth Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle. In The London Film and Media Reader 1: Essays from Film and Media 2011.: 22-31.

Conference Contributions - Other

Wright A. (2022) "How to Film a Hyperobject". Online in association with Massey University: The Materials of Screen Media. SSAAANZ 2022 (Screen Studies Association of Australia andAotearoa New Zealand, 30 Nov-2 Dec 2022.

Wright AF. (2018) "Vertigo Sea and Found Footage Film". Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Visible Evidence XV, 8-11 Aug 2018.

Wright AF. (2018) "Vertigo Sea: Montage and Monad". Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, NZ: CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa Symposium, 15-15 Sep 2018.

Wright AF. (2016) "The Idea of Dubbing in New Zealand Film". Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand: Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, 23-25 Nov 2016.

Wright A. (2015) Storming the Citadel of Time: The Use of the Archive in 'Blockade' (Loznitsa, 2006) and 'Mirror' (Tarkovsky, 1985). Lodz, Poland: Archive Of/For the Future, 18-20 Jun 2015.

Wright A. (2013) Film Theory as Seismic Research. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand: Disaster: A Symposium, 27-29 Nov 2013.

Wright A. (2012) Resistance and Resentment: JLG/Jean Améry. Massey, Palmerston North, New Zealand: The Limits of Responsibility: Histories, Species, Politics, 3-5 Dec 2012.

Wright AF. (2011) Cinema Grimoire: Kenneth Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle. London, UK: Film and Media 2011, 12-14 Jul 2011.

Wright AF. (2011) On Aging: Jean Améry and the Late Films of Jean-Luc Godard. John Moores University, Liverpool, UK: Film-Philosophy Conference 2011, 6-8 Jul 2011.

Wright A. (2010) Scorpio Rising: Kenneth Anger and the Eclipse of Modernity. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia: XVth Biennial Conference of the Film & History Association of Australia & New Zealand, 30 Nov-3 Dec 2010.

Wright A. (2009) Vigilante Fury: Ritchie Venus vs Sam Neill. Melbourne, Australia: B is for BAD cinema: Inaugural Centre for Film and Television Studies Conference, 15-17 Apr 2009.

Wright A. (2007) Scuppered: The Academic with a Digital Camera. Wellington, New Zealand: MEDIANZ, 8-10 Feb 2007.

Wright A. (2006) Scuppered': Documentary and the Dub Encounter. Melbourne, Australia: XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand, 16-19 Nov 2006.

Wright A. (2005) Scuppered. Christchurch, New Zealand: What is the Contemporary Now? Current Issues in Visual Culture, 23 Jul 2005.

Wright A. (2002) Documentary Work in Progress: Some Theoretical Remarks on an Untitled Film. University of Auckland, New Zealand: Documentary Matters, 1 Oct 2002.

Wright A. (2002) Torture in the Name of Cinema: Bazin, Rossellini, Godard. Denver, CO, USA: Society of Cinema Studies, 23 May 2002.

Wright A. (2001) The Documentary Subject Exiled in Time. Brisbane, Australia: Visible Evidence IX, 17 Dec 2001.

Wright A. (2001) The Question' - (Chairperson). London, UK: Forever Godard, Tate Modern, 21 Jun 2001.

Wright A. (2000) Haddocks' Eyes or Reinventing Film Studies. Wellington, New Zealand: Film and History Conference, 1 Nov 2000.

Wright A. (2000) In the Cinema Room. University of Cantebury, Christchurch, New Zealand: Terror in the Arts, 1 Aug 2000.

Wright A. (1999) Elizabeth Taylor at Auschwitz: J-L Godard and the Historical Object of Montage. West Palm Beach, Florida, USA: Society of Cinema Studies, 15 Apr 1999.

Wright., Alan., Dever. and Paul. (1997) Deck of Cards: Myth, History, Mekons. Duke University, North Carolina, USA: Representing Rock, 1 Apr 1997.

Other

Bullen R., Chrisstoffels J., Millar P. and Beattie J. (2016) Script Consultant: Visions of Peace. [HD Digital video].

Wright A. (2016) "Scorpio Rising". In Encyclopedia of Modernism(early access on-line) London: Routledge.

Wight A. and Read L. (2015) Film on the Faultline: Radio Interview on Plains FM. [Radio Interview].

Wright A. (2006) Alexander Kluge. Vol. 2: 729-731. New York: Routledge. [Encyclopedia Entry].

Wright A. (2006) Annie Goldson. Vol. 1: 492-494. New York: Routledge. [Encyclopedia Entry].

Wright A. (2004) Andre Bazin. London: Routledge. [Book].

Oral Presentations

Wright AF. (2018) "The Dub Encounter in New Zealand Film". University of Canterbury: New Zealand Studies Seminar, 03 Oct 2018.

Wright AF. (2016) In the Depths of the Soviet Archive: Andrey Tarkovsky and Found Footage Film. History Seminar, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: History Department Seminar.

Wright AF. (2010) Introduction: The Films of Ritchie Venus. Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu: The Films of Ritchie Venus.

Wright AF. (2010) The Evil Twins: Ritchie Venus Vs Sam Neill. Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu: The Films of Ritchie Venus.

Wright A. (2007) Scuppered: Fish, Facts and Film. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand: Department of Media, Film and Communication Research Seminar, 16 May 2007.

Theses / Dissertations

Wright AF. (1998) Dread Theory: From Dialectical Image to Dub Encounter. Florida, USA. University of Florida.

Review and Refereeing

Displaying all items.

Studies in Documentary ( 2006 - 2023)

Research Groups

Resilience: Social Research

Research Projects

Film on the faultline