Columbia University Press is the proud U.S. distributor of Wallflower Press, one of the best publishers in film and film studies. Here are some recent arrivals from Wallflower that highlight the diverse and always-compelling nature of their list.

Is there more to recent, Blair-era cinema than Billy Elliot and Hugh Grant? In in Contemporary British Cinema, James Leggot presents a wide-ranging discussion that highlights the variety of recent British film, which includes Hugh and Billy but also much, much more. In a world saturated with entertainment “news,” Widescreen: Watching. Real. People. Elsewhere., by Mark Cousins offers a refreshingly incisive look at contemporary cinema. Known for his work in Prospect, award-winning journalist and critic Mark Cousins presents a skeptical, passionate, eyewitness account of film today, argued originally and written with panache.

The intersection of film and philosophy is increasingly on the minds of both filmmakers and film scholars. In the aptly titled Film and Philosophy: Taking Movies Seriously, Daniel Shaw considers the ideas of philosophers such as Stanley Cavell and the ways in which both classic and recent films have grappled with philosophical issues.

Finally, for those who are interested in documentary film, there is the excellent Documentary Display: Re-Viewing Nonfiction Film and Video by Keith Beattie. The cover from the book includes an image from a film by the great Jean Painlevé, whose hypnotic nature documentaries are not to be missed. Here’s a clip from one of his films, Le Vampire: