The Nationalist Imaginary in the Bollywood Sports Film

Even after the liberalising of the Indian economy, the nationalist narrative, has endured, taking new forms. Some scholars have to argued that the post-national trope has been inaugurated in the Hindi film. By looking at a few popular sports films of the last decade and a half, Nissim Manathukkaren interrogates this contention pointing out that the post-national is not yet realized in the sports film genre. The author argues that the sports film by mirroring the limited notion of nationalism that is in sync with the logic of the market, is as yet a disappointment. It papers over the fissures and the complications within the current hegemonic nationalism, but carrying the potential of reimagining it. The author contends that in its intense desire to portray sporting glory as a triumph for the nation, films have tended to underplay individual struggles.

Transnational sports soundscapes: Soccer announcers and radio in Argentina and Chile, 1920s–60s

The article contributes to the field of cultural studies and radio history by focusing on soccer (or fútbol), arguably the most significant mass spectacle in twentieth-century Latin America. By exploring the trajectories, iconic voices and styles of sportscasters, the article reconstructs the masculine soundscape of soccer in Argentina and Chile between the 1920s and 1960s. Play-by-play announcers, who ranged from second-rate actors and singers to professional journalists, crafted their own versions of masculinity and nationalism that were central to representing sports culture in an increasingly transnational context. The article pays special attention to the sporting press, audio records and sports films, since many commentators borrowed heavily from other forms of mass culture. Their oral representations of the game, loaded with moral evaluations and political statements, can be seen as cultural texts because they enabled new ways of imagining sports for much larger audiences than those sitting in the stadium.

Regulated Immediacy

This chapter explores the work of Viktor Sokolov, a much-admired director at Lenfilm whose extensive work in genre films (production dramas, sports films, literary adaptations) made him relatively invisible to the critical establishment of his own day and later. Sokolov’s combination of emotional surges and a precise and critical eye for cinematic patterning made him difficult to classify at any time, and never more so than in A Day of Sunshine and Rain (1967), an unusual children’s film that explores the unexpected and fragile friendship of two young boys who have skipped school, but also the nature and purpose of art.

Positive and Negative Themes Depicted in Combat-Related Sports Films

Participation in boxing, mixed martial arts, and wrestling is extremely popular among children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to determine themes depicted in a select number of combat-related films. Twenty films were independently viewed and analyzed by 4 reviewers. The average number of positive and negative themes was 34.4 and 18.1 mean events/hour for all included films, respectively. The most common positive themes were “positive interactions with family/friends/fans,” “importance of mentorship,” and “positive interactions with a coach/trainer” (4.23, 3.63, and 3.06 mean events/hour, respectively). The most common negative themes were “choosing to do the wrong thing,” “negative interactions with family/friends/fans,” and “poor sportsmanship” (2.70, 2.00, and 1.58 mean events/hour, respectively). In conclusion, the co-viewing of combat-related films among pediatric athletes and their coaches/trainers and/or parents in order to focus on “teachable moments” may encourage the acquisition and development of positive themes and the avoidance and de-emphasis of negative themes.