Description
Book SynopsisOffers insights into the institutional and intellectual foundations of cinema studies. This volume provides examinations of the varied social, political, and intellectual milieus in which knowledge of cinema has been generated. It also considers the future directions of film study in a changing technological and cultural environment.
Trade Review“This collection contributes new understandings to the history of film studies, particularly regarding the discipline’s development in the humanities and its gradual abandonment of the methodological practices of the social sciences, in which it had its origins.
Inventing Film Studies will be welcomed by academics working in cinema studies, and it will provide new entrants to the field with an important introduction to the history of their study.”—
Richard Maltby, author of
Hollywood Cinema“This is the best film book that I’ve read in years. It covers the history of film studies, certainly the least historicized discipline in the humanities and social sciences. Contributors show that the field dates at least to the early twentieth century and that it can be traced through a number of institutions: not just the academy but also government, the museum, and the publishing industry, to name just three. Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson have produced a book that will change the way film scholars think about their field.”—
Eric Smoodin, co-editor of
Looking Past the Screen: Case Studies in American Film History and Method
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
The Academy and Motion Pictures / Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson xi
Making Cinema Knowable
Cinema Studies and the Conduct of Conduct / Lee Grieveson 3
Taking Liberties: The Payne Fund Studies and the Creation of the Media Expert / Mark Lynn Anderson 38
"Reaching the Multimillions": Liberal Internationalism and the Establishment of Documentary Film / Zoe Druick 66
Young Art, Old Colleges: Early Episodes in the American Study of Film / Dana Polan 93
Making Cinema Educational
Studying Movies at the Museum: The Museum of Modern Art and Cinema's Changing Object / Haidee Wasson 121
Classrooms, Clubs, and Community Circuits: Cultural Authority and the Film Council Movement, 1946-1957 / Charles R. Acland 149
Experimental Film and the Development of Film Study in America / Michael Zryd 182
From Cinephilia to Film Studies / Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen 217
Making Cinema Legible
Experimentation and Innovation in Three American Film Journals of the 1950s / Haden Guest 235
Screen and 1970s Film Theory / Philip Rosen 264
(Re)Inventing
Camera Obscura / Amelia Hastie, Lynne Joyrich, Patricia White, and Sharon Willis 298
Little Books / Mark Betz 319
Making and Remaking Cinema Studies
Footstool Film School: Home Entertainment as Home Education / Alison Trope 353
Dr. Strange Media, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Film Theory / D. N. Rodowick 374
Appendix
Timeline for a History of Anglophone Film Culture and Film Studies / Stephen Groening 399
Selected Bibliography 419
About the Contributors 425
Index 429
