Dr. Iván Lacasa, Dr. Raquel Crisóstomo and Aurora Oliva, professors in the Faculty of Communication Sciences, gave a presentation on the evolution of the war film genre in light of movies on the Iraq War at the 4th European Communication Conference (ECREA 2012), held at the end of October in Istanbul.
The presentation, titled "The Renewed War Film Narrative Perspective: The
Incorporation of Different Visual Screens as a Narrative Element Due to
Mediatization. The Paradigmatic Case of Brian De Palma's Redacted", focused on the film Redacted. The film, directed by Brian De Palma, is based on a true
story of the rape of a local teenage girl by US soldiers. The film is particularly
notable for its documentary-style storytelling.
Lacasa, Crisóstomo and Oliva analysed
how Redacted is emblematic of a
change in the war film genre seen in feature films on the Iraq War, namely, the
use of visual screens to structure fictional narrative.
The conference, organized by
the European Communication Research and Education Association, focused on the
profound transformations taking place in the mass media at a global level. The proposed
theme, "Social Media and Global Voices", sought to open up the
European academic scene to areas such as new media, peace and war journalism,
the culture of convergence, cultural spaces for human interaction, and the
media as a platform for democracy, among many others.
