American film history : selected readings
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Black rodeo : a history of the African American western
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African American westerns have a rich cinematic history and visual culture. Mia Mask examines the African American western hero within the larger context of film history by considering how Black westerns evolved and approached wide-ranging goals. Woody Strode's 1950s transformation from football star to actor was the harbinger of hard-edged western heroes later played by Jim Brown and Fred Williamson. Sidney Poitier's Buck and the Preacher provided a narrative helmed by a groundbreaking African American director and offered unconventionally rich roles for women. Mask moves from these discussions to consider blaxploitation westerns and an analysis of Jeff Kanew's hard-to-find 1972 documentary about an all-Black rodeo. The book addresses how these movies set the stage for modern-day westploitation films like Django Unchained.  A first-of-its kind survey, Black Rodeo illuminates the figure of the Black cowboy while examining the intersection of African American film history and the western.
Picturing indians : Native Americans in film, 1941-1960
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Standing at the intersection of Native history, labor, and representation, Picturing Indians presents a vivid portrait of the complicated experiences of Native actors on the sets of midcentury Hollywood Westerns. This behind-the-scenes look at costuming, makeup, contract negotiations, and union disparities uncovers an all-too-familiar narrative of racism and further complicates filmmakers' choices to follow mainstream representations of "Indianness." Liza Black offers a rare and overlooked perspective on American cinema history by giving voice to creators of movie Indians--the stylists, public relations workers, and the actors themselves. In exploring the inherent racism in sensationalizing Native culture for profit, Black also chronicles the little-known attempts of studios to generate cultural authenticity and historical accuracy in their films. She discusses the studios' need for actual Indians to participate in, legitimate, and populate such filmic narratives. But studios also told stories that made Indians sound less than Indian because of their skin color, clothing, and inability to do functions and tasks considered authentically Indian by non-Indians. In the ongoing territorial dispossession of Native America, Native people worked in film as an economic strategy toward survival. Consulting new primary sources, Black has crafted an interdisciplinary experience showcasing what it meant to "play Indian" in post-World War II Hollywood. Browse the author's media links.
The Golden Screen: the movies that made Asian America
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From a New York Times bestselling author, this groundbreaking book celebrates and examines the history of Asian Americans on the big screen, exploring how iconic films have shaped Hollywood, representation, and American culture. In 2018, the critical and financial success of Crazy Rich Asians ignited new fires in Hollywood to create and back Asian-centric stories. Since then, the number of movies featuring Asian Americans, either in front or behind the camera, has boomed and ushered in a new era of filmmaking. But many films, like The Joy Luck Club in 1993, paved the way for Asian American-led films before Crazy Rich Asians and to today. The Golden Screen is an in-depth look at those films, and the factors that played into their success. The Golden Screen includes commentary and conversations from Hollywood's most visible faces, such as Simu Liu, Lulu Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Janet Yang, Ronny Chieng, Alice Wu, and Ken Jeong. See the movies that inspired today's modern stars to enter moviemaking, and how they're paying it forward to the next wave of creators. Featuring beautiful, original artwork from nine esteemed Asian illustrators, including: Toma Nguyen, barbarian flower, Jun Cen, Cryssy Cheung, Cliff Chiang, Yu-Ming Huang, JiYeun Kang, Ashraf Omar, and Zi Xu. A beautiful keepsake and collection of over 100 photographs and original art, The Golden Screen is perfect for movie and history fans alike, and reaffirms the importance of the Asian American film canon, and all the people involved, in an increasingly diverse Hollywood.
Black Caesars and foxy Cleopatras : a history of blaxploitation cinema
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In 1971, two films grabbed the movie business, shook it up, and launched a genre that would help define the decade. Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, an independently produced film about a male prostitute who beats up cops and gets away, and Gordon Parks's Shaft, a studio-financed film with a killer soundtrack, were huge hits, making millions of dollars. Sweetback upended cultural expectations by having its Black rebel win in the end, and Shaft saved MGM from bankruptcy. Not for the last time did Hollywood discover that Black people went to movies too. The Blaxploitation era was born.
Girls Will Be Boys: cross-dressed women, lesbians, and American cinema, 1908-1934
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Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katharine Hepburn all made lasting impressions with the cinematic cross-dressing they performed onscreen. What few modern viewers realize, however, is that these seemingly daring performances of the 1930s actually came at the tail end of a long wave of gender-bending films that included more than 400 movies featuring women dressed as men. Laura Horak spent a decade scouring film archives worldwide, looking at American films made between 1908 and 1934, and what she discovered could revolutionize our understanding of gender roles in the early twentieth century. Questioning the assumption that cross-dressing women were automatically viewed as transgressive, she finds that these figures were popularly regarded as wholesome and regularly appeared onscreen in the 1910s, thus lending greater respectability to the fledgling film industry. Horak also explores how and why this perception of cross-dressed women began to change in the 1920s and early 1930s, examining how cinema played a pivotal part in the representation of lesbian identity. Girls Will Be Boys excavates a rich history of gender-bending film roles, enabling readers to appreciate the wide array of masculinities that these actresses performed--from sentimental boyhood to rugged virility to gentlemanly refinement. Taking us on a guided tour through a treasure-trove of vintage images, Girls Will Be Boys helps us view the histories of gender, sexuality, and film through fresh eyes.
Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema
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A visual exploration of cyberpunk and its global impact and lasting influence on cinema culture Published with Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction, first appeared in the early 1980s and uniquely captured the anxieties of the decade. Featuring near-future scenarios set in worlds that resemble our own, cyberpunk stories juxtapose technological advances with social upheaval, ecological crisis and urban decay. Central to these narratives are antihero characters who fight against corrupt political systems, technology gone haywire and global mega-corporations. Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures through Cinema examines the global impact and lasting influence of cyberpunk on cinema culture. Through rarely published behind-the-scenes photographs, film stills and concept art, the book spotlights iconic cyberpunk films such as Blade Runner, Tron and The Matrix; foundational animated features like Akira and Ghost in the Shell; and more recent releases such as Sleep Dealer, Pumzi, Night Raiders and Neptune Frost. More than 20 case studies written by critics, historians and filmmakers offer new perspectives on these films and their legacies. The book also features an in-depth introduction by curator Doris Berger; an essay by communications scholar Carlen Lavigne that discusses the genre's 20th-century literary origins and the new, global directions it has taken in the 21st century; and an interview with filmmakers Danis Goulet and Wanuri Kahiu that reflects on the interplay among cyberpunk, Afrofuturism and Indigenous futurism.
The Sound of Cinema: Hollywood film music from the silents to the present
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While some film scores crash through theater speakers to claim their place in memory, others are more unassuming. Either way, a film's score is integral to successful world building. This book lifts the curtain on the elusive yet thrilling art form, examining the birth of the Hollywood film score, its turbulent evolution throughout the decades and the multidimensional challenges to musicians that lie ahead. The history of the film score is illuminated by extraordinary talents (like John Williams, Hans Zimmer and countless others). Beginning with vaudeville and silent cinema, chapters explore the wonders of early pioneers like Max Steiner and Bernard Herrmann, and continue through the careers of other soundtrack titans. Leading Hollywood film composers offer in this book fascinating perspectives on the art of film music composition, its ongoing relevance and its astonishing ability to enhance a filmmaker's vision.
Making Hollywood Happen: the story of Film Finances
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Filmmaking is a business--someone has to pay the bills. For much of the industry's history, that role was shouldered by the studios. The rise of independent filmmakers then led to the rise of independent financiers. But what happens if bad weather closes down a production or a director's vision pays no heed to the limitations of time and money? Enter Film Finances. The company was founded in London in 1950 to insure against the risk that a film would exceed its original budget or not be completed on time. Its pioneering development of the "completion guarantee"--the financial instrument that provides the essential security for investors to support independent filmmaking--ultimately led to the creation of many thousands of films, including some of the most celebrated ever made: Moulin Rouge (1953), Dr. No (1962), The Outsiders (1982), Pulp Fiction (1994), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), La La Land (2016), and more. Film Finances's role in filmmaking was little known outside the industry until 2012, when it opened its historical archive to scholars. Drawing on these previously private documents as well as interviews with its executives, Making Hollywood Happen tells the company's story through seven decades of postwar cinema history and chronicles the growth of the international independent film industry. Focusing on a business that has operated at the meeting point between money and art for more than seventy years, this lavishly illustrated book goes to the heart of how the movie business works.
Screenwriters Advice: from popular and award winning film, TV, and streaming shows
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This book looks at the most important part of the filmmaking process from the point of view of those who grind away at a keyboard or notepad trying to bring new ideas and perspectives to an increasingly diversified world. Using The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook's tried and true Q&A style, with selected screenwriters, creating an engaging and easily digestible conversational feel, this book chronicles story theory, formatting, business issues and the creative process itself. Whether you're a seasoned scribe or an inexperienced writer, this book will give you perspectives and tips to get your creative juices flowing and make your story happen.
Below are library databases that can be used for researching cinema and related topics.
The list below includes other web sites and library archives that may help you research cinema.
Margaret Herrick Library - The Margaret Herrick Library is a world-renowned, non-circulating reference and research collection devoted to the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and an industry. The library's holdings include manuscript and photograph inventories, and databases of production art, manuscripts, academy awards, and acceptance speeches.
American Film Institute Catalog - The AFI Catalog contains detailed information on cast, crew, plot summaries, subjects, genres and historical notes are included for every feature-length film produced in America or financed by American production companies. The AFI catalog includes entries on nearly 60,000 American feature-length films and 17,000 short films produced from 1893-2011. It also includes AFI awards honorees from 2000 through 2014.
Society for Cinema and Media Studies - The Society for Cinema and Media Studies is the leading scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to promoting a broad understanding of film, television, and related media through research and teaching grounded in the contemporary humanities tradition.