1st Edition
Film Societies in Germany and Austria 1910-1933 Tracing the Social Life of Cinema
By Michael Cowan
Copyright 2023
274 Pages
by
Routledge
274 Pages
by
Routledge
This study traces the evolution of early film societies in Germany and Austria, from the emergence of mass movie theaters in the 1910s to the turbulent years of the late Weimar Republic. Examining a diverse array of groups, it approaches film societies as formations designed to assimilate and influence a new medium: a project emerging from the world of amateur science before taking new directions... Read more
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, INTRODUCTION – WHAT WAS A FILM SOCIETY? TOWARDS A NEW ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCREEN COMMUNITIES, CHAPTER 1 – THE KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY: THE BIRTH OF THE FILM SOCIETY FROM THE SPIRIT OF AMATEUR SCIENCE, CHAPTER 2 – THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY: CONCEPTUALIZING THE FILM INDUSTRY IN THE DEUTSCHE KINOTECHNISCHE GESELLSCHAFT, CHAPTER 3 – COMMUNITIES OF LOVE: CINEPHILIC FILM CLUBS, MOVIE MAGAZINES AND THE VIENNESE KINOGEMEINDE, CHAPTER 4 – THE SKEPTICAL COMMUNITY: LEFT-WING FILM SOCIETIES AND THE MAKING OF THE SUSPICIOUS SPECTATOR, AFTERWORD: WHAT’S IN AN ‘IDEA’?, BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Biography
Michael Cowan is Professor of film and media history in the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Iowa. His research, focused on German and European cinema, examines the broader cultural and technological contexts in which film practices emerged and evolved in the early 20th century. His publications have won numerous awards from the Society of Film and Media Studies and the British Association of Film and Television Studies Scholars, as well as the Willy Haas Award (Germany) and the Limina Award (Italy).
