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Black Panther is one of the most financially successful and culturally impactful films to emerge from the American film industry in recent years. When it was released in 2018 it broke numerous records and resonated with audiences all around the world in ways which transcended the dimensions of the superhero film. In Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon author Terence McSweeney explores the film from a diverse range of perspectives, seeing it not only as a comic book adaptation and a superhero film, but also a dynamic contribution to the discourse of both African and African American studies. Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon argues that Black Panther is one of the defining American films of the last decade and the most remarkable title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008-). The MCU has become the largest film franchise in the history of the medium and has even shaped the contours of the contemporary blockbuster, but the narratives within it have almost exclusively perpetuated largely unambiguous fantasies of American heroism and exceptionalism. In contrast, Black Panther complicates this by engaging in an entirely different mythos in its portrayal of an African nation—never colonized by Europe—as the most powerful and technologically advanced in the world. McSweeney charts how and why Black Panther became a cultural phenomenon and also a battleground on which a war of meaning was waged at a very particular time in American history.

Fred Schepisi is a crucial name associated with the ‘revival’ of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. This book traces the lead-up to Schepisi’s critical successes in feature-filmmaking via his earlier award-winning success as a producer in advertising commercials in the 1960s and the setting up of his own company. A minor biographical element considers Schepisi’s early education in a Catholic seminary, which he drew on in his semi-autobiographical film, The Devil’s Playground, the success of which launched him as an exciting new feature director. The book then charts Schepisi’s development as a director in demand in other countries, notably in the US and the UK, as well as continuing to make major films in Australia. His career is in this way symptomatic of Australian directors who have made their presence felt on the international stage. What follows here is a critical account of Schepisi’s film output and the context in which it has taken place, with the co-operation of Schepisi and some of his key collaborators. The book details production histories, an account of the finished films, and a sense of how the films were received (both critically and popularly). Author Brian McFarlane explores the recurring thematic, narrative, and visual elements that have helped to characterize Schepisi as artist and craftsman.