The range of topics in this volume covers a multitude of historical periods and topics, which in turn figure in the new media environments of contemporary life. These include discussions of the Aristotelian and classical models of a "good life" that inform animated fairy tales today; 1930s French and Hollywood films which respond to the dire need for productive human relationships in a turbulent decade; the polemical positions of black film criticism through the lens of James Baldwin's work; a discussion of contemporary filmic quests for happiness; the challenges for women filmmakers today in mapping the values of their own world; landscapes of austerity and poverty in the cinematic homelands today; the scientific, psychological, and philosophical base for human value; and the shifting media frames of modern society and selves.