Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies

Engaging Cinema emphasizes the interactions between society and cinema and introduces students to film studies as it is actually done by scholars and critics.

In what ways do films influence and interact with society? What social forces determine the kinds of movies that get made? How do movies reinforce―and sometimes overturn―social norms? As societies evolve, do the films that were once considered ‘great’ slip into obscurity? Which ones? Why? These questions, and many others like them, represent the mainstream of scholarly film studies today. In Engaging Cinema, Bill Nichols offers the first book for introductory film students that tackles these topics head-on.

Published in a handy 'trade paperback' format, Engaging Cinema is inexpensive and utterly unique in the field―a perfect complement to or replacement for standard film texts.

Bill Nichols received the 2022 Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies for his outstanding contributions to the field of film studies. He is a professor emeritus of cinema at San Francisco State University and has taught at several universities in the United States and abroad. Nichols has published a dozen books, written well over 150 articles, and lectured widely on six continents. His edited two-volume work Movies and Methods helped establish film studies as an academic discipline. Representing Reality launched the contemporary study of documentary film, and Introduction to Documentary is a landmark book that has been translated into numerous languages. Nichols has served as a consultant to different film organizations and also as a chair of film festival juries from Shanghai to São Paulo.