Black Screens, White Frames offers a new understanding of cinematic blankness. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy and pursuing an affirmative approach to non-images through the concept of the filmmaking machine, Tanya Shilina-Conte shows how absence as a productive mode alters the ways in which we study film.

Acknowledgments Fade-In: Introduction. The Filmmaking Machine, or Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Black or White Screen Chapter 1. Divergent Darkness: The Black Screen in Early Cinema Chapter 2. Convergent Codes: Fade-ins and Fade-outs as Rational Transitions in Classical Cinema Chapter 3. The Black or White Screen as a Tool of Deterritorialization in Modern and Experimental Cinema Chapter 4. One Chapter Less: The Black or White Screen in Minor Cinema Chapter 5. Folds to Black or White in Minor Cinema and Art Practice Chapter 6. Alternate Endings: The Black or White Screen in Post-Cinema Fade-Out: Conclusion. This Video Does Not Exist: The Remix of Black or White Screens and Multimodal Scholarship Notes Index

"An important expansion of Deleuzian cinematic philosophy, Black Screens, White Frames reconceptualizes the "blank" screen as a populated and performative machine. With limpid, compelling writing, Shilina-Conte guides the reader confidently through a generative assemblage of concepts, illuminates their contexts, and tests them on an exciting variety of movies, from early cinema to supercut, that release enfolded powers." -- Laura U. Marks, Simon Fraser University "In Black Screens, White Frames, Tanya Shilina-Conte demonstrates the generative power and infinite possibilities for new thought, unknown sensations, and untold stories one can find at the limits of perception when there is nothing more (or nothing yet) to see. Extensively researched, intelligently written, and conceptually strong, this book sheds new light on both film history and more contemporary post-cinema's digital modulations. By exploring the ways in which the virtual and the unseen can be considered as an integral part of the 'filmmaking machine,' this is an excellent and recommendable contribution to film-philosophy." -- Patricia Pisters, University of Amsterdam "Black Screens, White Frames brilliantly expands on the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to show how the use of black screens and white frames can vacillate between an expression of conservative narratology and radical deterritorializations, from early cinema to post-war experimental and non-western minoritarian cinema. This book is not only an exemplary work of film-philosophy but also the perfect reader's guide to the practical application of Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy as a whole. Perhaps the greatest accolade that one could give Professor Shilina-Conte is that she is not only an accomplished scholarly and film auteur but also the ultimate catalyst for our own creative involvement in the films themselves." -- Colin Gardner, UC Santa Barbara "Black Screens, White Frames brilliantly expands on the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to show how the use of black screens and white frames can vacillate between an expression of conservative narratology and radical deterritorializations, from early cinema to post-war experimental and non-western minoritarian cinema. This book is not only an exemplary work of film-philosophy but also the perfect reader's guide to the practical application of Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy as a whole. Perhaps the greatest accolade one could give Professor Shilina-Conte is that she is not only an accomplished scholarly and film auteur but also the ultimate catalyst for our own creative involvement in the films themselves." -- Colin Gardner, UC Santa Barbara

Tanya Shilina-Conte is Assistant Professor of Global Film Studies in the Department of English, University at Buffalo. Her essays have appeared in Screen, Film-Philosophy, Frames Cinema Journal, Word & Image, Studia Phænomenologica, In Media Res, Iran Namag, Leitura: Teoria & Prática, Studia Linguistica, Border Visions: Identity and Diaspora in Film, and elsewhere.

Selling point: Provides the first comprehensive account of blankness, darkness, and non-images in cinema. Selling point: Reassesses cinematic absence as generative while re-evaluating canonical as well as rare films. Selling point: Draws on Gilles Deleuze's film-philosophy to advance a theory of the filmmaking machine. Selling point: Introduces new film-philosophical concepts, such as folds to black or white and elective mutism.