The Pretorian Paradise Paradox: Waiting and Contemplating in the Middling City

Broodryk, Chris

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 9September 30, 2024<October 4, 2024

The Pretorian Paradise Paradox: Waiting and Contemplating in the Middling City

Chris Broodryk

In the lead-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, the television series Tropical Heat used Pretoria to double as a fictional Florida city. Chris Broodryk considers the complex political dynamics of the series and its transformation of Pretoria into a “retrotopian” space.

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 9September 30, 2024<October 4, 2024

A Summer in a City in the Middle of the Desert: Visions of Mexicali, Mexico, in Levantamuertos (2013)

Georgina Cebey

Georgina Cebey analyses the distinctive image of Mexicali in Levantamuertos (2013), arguing that the film's exploration of the "slow violence" of everyday life challenges stereotypical representations of the Mexican border.

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 9September 30, 2024<October 4, 2024

Mature Adults Only: Italian Cinema in Middling Western Pennsylvania Cities

Chris Hite

Chris Hite explores the popularity of Italian cinema in the “middling” industrial towns of Western Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century and traces how shifts in distribution and exhibition practices for foreign films marginalized these markets after World War II.

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 9September 30, 2024<October 4, 2024

Introduction: Screen Media and ‘Middling Cities’ – Questioning Hierarchies, Dominant Narratives and Negative Associations

Lavinia Brydon, Sanele KaNtshingana and Janina Schupp

In their dossier introduction, the editors discuss the significance of “middling cities” to debates about media and urbanism, and make a case for the importance of looking beyond metropolitan centres and global media capitals.