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About [in]Transition

[in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies is the first academic journal of its kind. The open peer-reviewed journal encourages scholars to write using the very materials that constitute their objects of study—moving images and sounds—and publishes work that contributes to both the knowledge of film and media studies and the videographic form. The journal was awarded the 2015 Anne Friedberg Award for Innovative Scholarship of Distinction by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Established in 2014 as a project of MediaCommons and Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (then known as Cinema Journal), as of 2024, [in]Transition is published by the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) and owned by SCMS.

We are thrilled to share with you [in]Transition 12.3, our third issue of 2025, showcasing eleven peer-reviewed videographic works. The issue is organized in two parts: a general section, and a special monographic section dedicated to ecocriticism and animal studies.

The General Section features seven videographic works spanning several diverse topics: Barbara Zecchi manifests the wide range of representations of women’s rage, Debbie Martin navigates the gothic conventions of space and gender, Kallan Benjamin explores class and eroticism in the opening sequence of Azner’s Working Girls, Vicente Rodríguez Ortega navigates the urban time-space of three Wong Kar-Wai films, Suryanshu Guha researches how the global film industry exploits transnational schisms of VFX labor, Mahsa Salamati and Bita Gh Ghanbari surveil the heteropia of Jafar Panahi’s work, and the IVERN collective’s “Om Shanti Ominibus” parametrically celebrates a popular Hindi film.

The Special Section on Ecocriticism and Animal Studies (co-conceived and introduced by our editors Maria Pramaggiore and Barbara Zecchi) addresses the growing need for what Kevin B. Lee and Silvia Cipelletti have termed eco-cinematic criticism. Building on their work, Celia Sainz introduces the concept of videographic ecocriticism, which “positions the video essay as a tool that fosters a non-anthropocentric, hybrid approach to film criticism and cinephilia, while simultaneously engaging with diverse affective and aesthetic modes.”

This monographic section brings together four works that contribute to the development of videographic ecocriticism by exploring human–animal relations, more-than-human ways of looking and listening, and the material and affective dimensions of ecological and nonhuman life. Each piece highlights how ecological awareness and animal perspectives challenge not only conventional ways of thinking but also of seeing and hearing, inviting readers to consider the ethical, aesthetic, and conceptual stakes of our entanglements with the more-than-human world. 

Celia Sainz’s "Bestiario" anchors this section with a theoretical framework; her three pieces invite us to actively engage in a multispecies encounter. Bárbara Bergamaschi's "Animalaise" challenges anthropocentric and colonialist representations of animals forced to mimic human behaviors in early cinema, immersing the viewer in a “becoming-animal” perspective. Lisa DiGiovanni’s "Of Donkeys and Men" mobilizes ecofeminist insights to examine the enmeshment of animal cruelty and misogyny, revealing how toxic masculinity underpins both anthropocentric violence and patriarchal domination. Finally, Katarzyna Paszkiewicz and Laura Del Vecchio's "a rumble from the core of the earth" reflects on how sound can attune us to the agency of the more-than-human world through a decolonial and ecological practice of listening.

We extend a sincere thank you to all of our contributors. We are especially grateful to our peer reviewers. We appreciate their hard work and constructive feedback, ensuring that each submission is as strong as it can be. We also eagerly welcome new reviewers; if you are interested in reviewing for our journal, please contact us.

Chiara Grizzaffi, Drew Morton, Maria Pramaggiore, and Barbara Zecchi, co-editors
Kevin Ferguson and Kathleen Loock, production editors
Jason Mittell, journal manager


Research Articles

Special Sections