ACSN is pleased to announce the publication of ‘Personal films in the Digital Space’, a guest-edited special issue of New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film (Vol. 11, Issue 2-3). This volume was prompted by the need to sample some of the themes, methodologies and critical developments currently explored in the field of amateur cinema/media studies and digital humanities. In choosing the term ‘personal film’ it has become possible to address the variegated film/visual sub-genres that constitute the current research corpus of amateur media studies. As a result, the articles selected for this issue address in a wide-ranging and cross-disciplinary framework constructions of private and/or public memory across 8mm home movies, video and digital amateur films, Skype and YouTube recordings, and experimental films. As a guest editor, and on behalf of ACSN, Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes has invited the contributors to reflect on how personal films function as visual agents of private, national and global intimacies in the digital space of online archives and social networks, and to explore questions of research methodologies, archival practices, audience reception, self-reflexivity and cultural heritage. For additional information see ACSN Editor’s Choice.
