How the Movies Got a Past presents a comprehensive survey of the rise of historiographical discourse on cinema in North America as it is reflected in publications, exhibitions, lectures, and films about the cinema as a technology, form of art, and source of entertainment, from its inception up to 1930. This pioneering historiography of American movies proposes a typology of genres of historical knowledge and examines the role that its articulation played in legitimating the moving image as a form of cultural heritage and a field of study.
How did early studios seek to understand and promote their own activities as part of a brand-new form of entertainment with its own traditions, "founding fathers," and ambitions? How did early writers modulate between retrospection and analysis, between nostalgia and ballyhoo, between journalism and research into the "relics" of the nascent film industry and what were their motivations and influence on subsequent historians? What rhetorical and material platforms were deployed to talk about and show the history of cinema and for what audiences were they meant? In teasing out answers to these and other questions, this book makes an argument for early cinema historiography as an emergent genre with its own conventions and goals instead of a "primitive" version of today's historical writing on the movies. With a wealth of case studies, and illustrations, How the Movies Got a Past will appeal to media historians, silent movie buffs, film archivists, and students alike.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
This important book transforms our understanding of the history of early cinema by expanding on the limited range of material that past studies have drawn upon. Supported by extensive research, Latsis creates a lucid study supported by a wide range of sources, including industry self studies. * Virginia Wright Wexman, University of Illinois Chicago * How the Movies Got a Past fills a gap in media studies, which is the lack of any systematic account of histories of film in the first decades of cinema. Latsis presents an abundant range of source material and augments his empirical research with astute analyses in an accessible and engaging manner. * Donald Crafton, University of Notre Dame * Dimitrios Latsis's groundbreaking historiography excavates a rich discourse on film history practically going back to the birth of cinema itself. It constitutes an important pre history of today's film studies in their attempts to frame the new medium as a legitimate art, entertainment, and industry. This book should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in American film history. * Jan Christopher Horak, UCLA School of Theatre, Film & Digital Media * This book is a superb, deeply researched study of often dismissed early writings, from Grau to Ramsaye, bent on creating a history of cinema during its very emergence, but especially of little examined practices that likewise sought to construct a sense of cinema's 'usable past'-from commercial non fiction films, revivals or re-releases, and studio commemorations to public exhibitions, university curricula, and the efforts of private collectors. * Richard Abel, University of Michigan * The book explores the stuff that those interested in doing media archaeology would find extremely useful, but it is not a work of media archaeology itself. * Choice *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 242 mm
Breite: 163 mm
Dicke: 26 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-19-768927-1 (9780197689271)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Dimitrios Latsis is a historian and digital humanist working at the intersection of archiving and visual culture. He is Assistant Professor in Digital and Audiovisual Preservation at the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies. His work on American visual culture, early cinema, archival studies, and the Digital Humanities has been supported by the Smithsonian Institution, Domitor, Mellon, and Knight Foundations, and Canada's Social Studies and Humanities Research Council, among others. He is the co-editor of Art in the Cinema: The Mid-Century Art Documentary (2020) with Steven Jacobs and Birgit Cleppe.
Autor*in
Assistant Professor in Digital and Audiovisual PreservationAssistant Professor in Digital and Audiovisual Preservation, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Evolving Practice of Film Historiography
Part I: Historiography
1. A Vivisection: Writing the History of an Emergent Medium
2. The First Canonical Histories: Ramsaye, Rotha and Beyond
3. Finding Its Voice? Sound and the (Re)-writing of Film History
PART II: Meta-History
4. Through a Glass Darkly: Early Nonfiction Films about the History of Cinema
5. Programming the Classics: Revivals, The Little Theater Movement and the Emergence of a Canon
6. The Future-Past of Moving Images: Towards a Pre-history of Film Archiving
7. Exhibitions and Museums: The Past of Cinema on Display
8. Invented Traditions: Commemorations and Anniversaries
9. Learning and Earning: Film History Enters the University Curriculum
Conclusion
Appendix: Silent Non-Fiction Films Related to the History of Cinema
Bibliography
Index
