This Wednesday 15th June at 6:30pm, as a part of the Outside-in cinema series in Experimedia here at the Library, we will be showing the acclaimed war documentary entitled Restrepo. The film covers a year in the life of a platoon of US army soldiers whilst deployed in one of the most dangerous outposts in Afghanistan.

Of the many books in the collection on war in film, a few titles stick out as important background reading.

Film and television after 9/11 looks at the changing portrayals of war and international conflict from a primarly US point of view after the World Trade Center attacks, covering political changes as evenly as emotional repercussions acted out on the screens.

Transnational cinema looks at the way the experience of film is shifted when national boundaries and tensions are brought in, expanding to look at social sub-culture interactions and biases.

Cinema wars takes a broad look at US films made in the Bush-Cheney government, whether explicitly focusing on the “war on terror”, or referring back to important works of national literature and biblical extracts.

And finally, the recent book, Afghanistan in the cinema, gives a thorough exploration of the various portrayals of the country made by the international film industry, referring back to well before the last decade.

All of these titles can be found on the shelves in the Arts Reading Room.