American Cinema’s Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520240278 ISBN 13: 9780520240278

Publisher: University of California Press, 2004

Synopsis

The years between 1908 and 1917 witnessed what may have been the most significant transformation in American film history. During this "transitional era," widespread changes affected film form and film genres, filmmaking practices and industry structure, exhibition sites, and audience demographics. By the end of the period, cinema had moved toward the shape it would assume for decades under the studio system. This collection of new essays by prominent film scholars traces these myriad changes, presenting the most detailed and comprehensive portrait yet of this pivotal stage in cinema's development.

Topics under discussion include debates about cinema's place in American culture; the influence of an evolving feature format; the role of state censorship; emerging genres and audiences; onscreen depictions of gender, race, and nationality; changing exhibition practices and theater locales; and the emergence of Hollywood as the nation's film capital.

Contributors: Richard Abel, Constance Balides, Ben Brewster, Scott Curtis, Lee Grieveson, Tom Gunning, Charlie Keil, J. A. Lindstrom, Roberta E. Pearson, Jennifer Lynn Peterson, Lauren Rabinovitz, Ben Singer, Shelley Stamp, Jacqueline Stewart

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"An excellent collection that takes a broad and inclusive view of a remarkably interesting era. Bringing together an impressive line-up of film historians, Keil and Stamp's collection is a significant contribution to our understanding of early American cinema."—Gregory Waller, author of Main Street Amusements and Moviegoing in America

"This anthology refines our understanding of pre-classical American film and presents new research on the transitional era. The essays reveal an illuminating discussion of this important period in North American film. The scholarship is superior, and the organization of material exemplary. The volume is a timely and important contribution to the historiography of pre-classical cinema in the U.S."—John Fullerton, Stockholm University, co-editor of Nordic Explorations: Film Before 1930

About the Author

Charlie Keil is Associate Professor of History and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto and author of Early American Cinema in Transition: Story, Style, and Filmmaking, 1907-1913 (2001). Shelley Stamp is Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon (2000).

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0520240278
• ISBN 13: 9780520240278
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 381
• Editor: Keil Charlie, Stamp Shelley