Screening Difference

Did you know that Pocahontas probably never fell in love with John Smith, as film versions pretend? That the myth of the sexually eager Hula girls is based on misunderstandings by early explorers? Screening Difference is a fascinating voyage through recent movie blockbusters dealing with encounters between "us," based on white Hollywood, and "them," the representations of other races, ethnicities, and cultures. Looking at orientations in casting, make-up, sets, props, lighting, camera movements, music, and language, this lively book follows the best-known genres, from animated cartoons to romantic movies. Screening Difference tracks the stories to their origins and dissects their hidden messages.

Jaap van Ginneken is an independent author and lecturer on psychology, culture, and communication based in France. He has published seventeen books in thirty-two editions and five languages to date. He formerly taught in the area of entertainment studies and public opinion at the Department of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam as an associate professor.

Screening Difference combines sociological, cultural, and cinema savvy to provide a penetrating treatment of ethnocentrism in recent Hollywood mega projects. Telling details make it an enjoyable read. The author is a distinguished psychologist of mass communication. -- Jan Nederveen Pieterse, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; author, Globalization and Culture Jaap van Ginneken's new book offers a splendid and illuminating analysis of the hidden messages in Hollywood's most popular films. The Hollywood images that van Ginneken skillfully dissects are profoundly disturbing. Well written and carefully documented, Screening Difference should be on the reading list of everyone interested in how the exotic dreams of Hollywood shape the cultural stereotypes that millions of people are exposed to. Great for students and teachers in film and media studies... -- Cees J. Hamelink, professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam Jaap van Ginneken's new book offers a splendid and illuminating analysis of the hidden messages in Hollywood's most popular films. The Hollywood images that van Ginneken skillfully dissects are profoundly disturbing. Well written and carefully documented, Screening Difference should be on the reading list of everyone interested in how the "exotic" dreams of Hollywood shape the cultural stereotypes that millions of people are exposed to. Great for students and teachers in film and media studies. -- Cees J. Hamelink, professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam