Martens, Dr. Emiel
Emiel Martens is a postdoc researcher working in the field of Caribbean (Media) Studies. His main research project, which is entitled ‘Welcome to Paradise Island: The Rise of Jamaica’s Cine-Tourist Image’, explores Jamaica’s interwoven history of film and tourism in the early twentieth century.
Martens graduated cum laude in both Media Studies and Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), was a visiting scholar at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at University of the West Indies and holds a Ph.D in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam. Emiel has conducted extensive research in the context of postcolonial cinema studies with a particular interest in the history and praxis of film(making) in the Caribbean.
Besides his post at KITLV, Emiel is a lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam, a board member of the Netherlands Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (NALACS) and a trainer at Scope, a career advancement agency for young (academic) professionals. In addition, he is the founding director of Caribbean Creativity, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Caribbean and Caribbean-themed cinema and co-owner of Dudes in your Face (Dutch: Gasten in je Gezicht), a creative writer’s collective and media agency specializing in content marketing for small companies, organizations, institutes and individuals.
Selected Publications
‘A parradox in Caribbean cinema? An interview with minimal movie filmmaker Pim de la Parra, pragmatic dreamer from Suriname’, in: D. Hambuch, J. White and U. Fendler (eds.), Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies. Edmonton: University of Alberta, forthcoming.
‘Independent documentary filmmaking in Jamaica: An interview with Esther Figueroa’, in: K. Wilson and A. Traverso (eds.), Social Identities: A Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 19.3-04: 440-453. Routledge, 2013.
‘Maori on the silver screen: The evolution of indigenous feature filmmaking in Aotearoa/New Zealand’, International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 5.1, 2012.
‘Jamaican film icons: Interviews with Carl Bradshaw and the late Charles Hyatt’, in: P. Mohammed (ed.), Caribbean Intransit: A Caribbean Arts Journal 1: 80-86, 2011.
Once Were Warriors: The aftermath – The controversy of OWW in Aotearoa New Zealand. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
