Screening the past: An international electronic journal of media and history Issue 3 has just been uploaded, containing the following major articles: Contemporary film theory in China, by Hu Ke (introduced by Chris Berry): Western film theory is generally subdivided into classical theory and contemporary theory. Contemporary theory originated in the mid-sixties and flourished in the 1970s. It was introduced to China in the early 1980s and brought in as a complete theoretical system a few years later. This article offers a general account of how contemporary Western film theory came to China, along with brief comments on relevant theoretical issues. The ahistoricism of medieval film, by Arthur Lindley This paper argues that medieval films -- from "The seventh seal" to "Braveheart" and "First knight" -- are characteristically ahistorical. Where films dealing with the more recent past, such as "The age of innocence", customarily place the period as sequentially and causatively linked to the present, the medieval past is usually presented as analogous to the present but not linked to it by evolutionary sequence. The otherness of the past is sacrificed to its role as mirror or inversion of the contemporary world. Even more than other period films, medieval movies are always about the present. The experimental practice of history in the filmwork of Jeni Thornley, by Felicity Collins Jeni Thornley's personal films, ("Maidens" and "To the other shore"), and her social action documentaries, ("A Film for discussion" and "For love or money"), are landmark films in the history of Australian feminist cinema over the last three decades. Although these genres of activist cinema fell out of favour in the 1980s, Meaghan Morris's recent articulation of feminism as an "experimental practice of history" has opened up a space for re-reading Thornley's films, as this article does, using some of the theoretical perspectives of Walter Benjamin. Writing on the wall: films by Bridget Sutherland, by Harriet Margolis Combining words with images for narrative purposes dominates work by some of New Zealand’s most important contemporary painters. This short paper examines two films by Bridget Sutherland within their context of New Zealand art and culture as well as their relation to other arts. Selected poems of Vachel Lindsay (introduced by Laurence Goldstein) Lindsay wrote a series of poems on film, and particularly film stars. These are reproduced, together with an edited chapter from Laurence Goldstein’s 1994 book, `The American poet at the movies: a critical history’. Book and film reviews are regularly added, and the Trailers section (jobs, conferences, new publications) is updated monthly. Contributions and comment are invited. Ina Bertrand (editor) -- (Dr) Ina Bertrand Media Studies, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia 3083 [log in to unmask] http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/screeningthepast/ ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.