Charles Musser

 

Charles Musser

Education:

Yale University, B.A., 1975, Major: Film and Literature
New York University, Ph.D., October 1986, Dept of Cinema Studies

Academic Experience:
2000-present:  Professor of American Studies, Film Studies and Theater Studies, Yale University.  Co-chair, Film Studies Program (to July 2008). Director Yale Summer Film Institute.

1995-2000: Associate Professor of American Studies and Film Studies, Yale University.  Director of Undergraduate Studies, Film Studies Program.

1992-1995: Assistant Professor of  American Studies and Film Studies, Yale University.  Director of Undergraduate Studies, Film Studies Program.

1985-1995: co-chair: University Seminar, Columbia, on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation.

1991-1992: Visiting Assistant. Professor, Dept. of Film and Television, UCLA.

1988-1992: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Film Division, School of the Arts, Columbia University.

Spring 1990: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema Studies, New York University.

1987-Fall 89: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema Studies, New York University.

Fall 1988: Visiting Adjunct, Film Department, State University of New York-Purchase.

Spring 1987: Visiting lecturer, College seminar, Yale University.

 

Curatorial Experience:

1980-present: film historian for the Thomas A. Edison Papers, at Rutgers University.

2007-present: film curator, International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven) including “The Iraq Experience: Four Films of Petra Epperlein and Mike Tucker” (2011), “A Weekend with Errol Morris and His Films (2010), “The Future Will Be Possible: Documentary Films on Today’s Refugees” (2009).

2006: co-curator Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Italy.  “Rediscovered Treasures: British and American Films from the 1890s” (with Vanessa Toulmin).

2005: co-curator, Edison: The Invention of the Movies”  4 DVD set. With Stephen Higgins, Kino/Museum of Modern Art.  “FASCINATING ….A REVELATION ….A SPLENDIDLY PRODUCED BOX SET produced by two of the leading scholars of early film” Dave Kehr, New York Times. Top DVD set of the year—Amazon.com

2001: co-curator, Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Period (with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines).  A touring seven-part program with catalog, organized through Duke University. World premiere at the Giornate del Cinema Muto (Saclie, Italy), October 2001.

1998-9: co-curator, two film series with program notes, which accompanied the Centennial Exhibition Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen, organized by the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Rutgers University.   “Paul Robeson: Star of Stage and Screen” at UCLA Film & Television Archives,   October 1998 (with Ed Guerrero and Mark Reid) and “Borderlines: Paul Robeson and Film” at MoMA, June-July1999 (with Ed Guerrero).

1997: curator/programmer, Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900, a  multi-part retrospective, Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Italy.
.

1978-9, 1990-1991, 1994:  curator, programmer for the Museum of Modern Art (NYC): World Cinema to 1900 (guest curator with Eileen Bowser); A  History of American Cinema: The Silent Years, co-curated with Eileen Bowser and Richard Koszarski; A Tribute to Edwin S. Porter, a four-part retrospective with program notes. Restored  many of the Museum’s Porter/Edison films.  Worked on the restoration of other early Griffith/Biograph and Vitagraph shorts.

1989-1991: guest curator for the New-York Historical Society:  The film series American History/American Film and Race and Class in New York, including screenings with panels and program notes.

1983-1986: co-curator: Before Hollywood: Turn of the Century American Films from American Archives (with Jay Leyda) for the American Federation of the Arts. Six programs of American films with 200-page catalog.  Opened at the Whitney Museum, NYC in January-February 1987 and followed by an international tour.

 

Grants, Awards and Fellowships:

-Honorable Mention, Katherine Kovacs Prize for Outstanding Essay in Media Studies for “The Clash between Theater and Film:  Germaine Dulac, André Bazin and La Souriante Madame Beudet,” New Review of Film and Television Studies 5:2 (Summer 2007), pp 111-134.

-Clark Art Institute Residential Fellowship (Spring 2006)

-Academy Film Scholar, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (for 2005).

–Katherine Kovacs Prize for Outstanding Essay in Media Studies (2000) for “To Redream the Dreams of White Playwrights: Resistance and Reappropriation in Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul,” in Yale Journal of Criticism, 12:2 (1999), 321-356.

–Honorable Mention, Katherine Kovacs Prize for Outstanding Book in Media Studies (1998) and Honorable Mention, Theater Library Book Award for Best Book on Motion Pictures, Radio and Television for Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography (1997)

–Prix Jean Mitry (Cineteca Friuli, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) (October 1996)

–Morse Fellowship (for 1994-95 academic year)

–Griswold Research Grants, Yale University (1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2011

–George Eastman Society International Scholar Award (1992)

–Grants for Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography: New York State Council for the Arts, 1990; and New Jersey Historical Commission, 1991; University Seminars, 1992;  Hilles Publication Fund, 1994.

–Jay Leyda Prize in Cinema Studies; the Theater Library Association Award for best book on motion pictures, radio and television; and the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for best book in Film, TV and Video Studies; Honorable Mention, MLA Prize for Independent Scholars for The Emergence of Cinema: the American Screen to 1907 (1990).

–National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (for 1990-1991 academic year).

–Selective/competitive festival screenings in 1982-83 for Before the Nickelodeon:  New York Film Festival (world premiere), Berlin, London, Sydney, New Delhi, Florence (Festival dei Populi) film festivals.

–Film production grants for Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter: National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, 1980-1982.

–SCS Student Award for Scholarly Writing, for “The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter,” Cinema Journal 19:1(Fall 1979), 1-38.

–”Blue Ribbon,” American Film Festival; “Best in Category –Fine Arts” S.F. Film Festival; CINE “Golden Eagle” for An American Potter (1976).

–Film production grants for An American Potter: National Endowment for the Arts and New Hampshire Commission on the Arts, 1976.

-Honors for specific books, essays and films also listed under individual items.

 

Publications and Films:

Books:

The Emergence of Cinema: the American Screen to 1907 (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1990).  Received the Jay Leyda Prize in Cinema Studies; the Theater Library Association Award for best book on motion pictures, radio and television; and the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for best book in Film, TV and Video Studies; Honorable Mention, MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.  An Outstanding Academic Book of 1991––Choice; One of the Notable Books of 1991––New York Times.  “Musser’s work constitutes a revolution in the study of early American cinema”  Stephen Bottomore, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.

 

Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).  Part of a book/film project.  Revision of dissertation that passed with distinction.  “Musser enables us to understand Porter’s adherence to what are neatly termed ‘cinematic strategies outside the repertoire of later classical cinema,’ and the way this was linked to his reluctance to go over to a hierarchical form of studio production.  The book is lucidly written, well illustrated and beautifully laid out, with an abundance of frame stills and relevant non-filmic inserts, making it one of the most pleasurable of scholarly books to use.”  Charles Barr, Sight and Sound.

 

High-Class Moving Pictures: Lyman H. Howe and the Forgotten Era of Traveling Exhibition, 1880-1920 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).  In collaboration with Carol Nelson.  Funded in part by Pennsylvania Council for the Humanities.  “An important contribution to American cultural history and film practice at the turn of the century.” American Historical Review

 

Thomas A. Edison and His Kinetographic Motion Pictures (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press for the Friends of Edison National Historic Site, 1995).  A short account of information appearing in Before the Nickelodeon and The Emergence of Cinema, designed for a general audience.  “This slim, attractively packaged volume is one of those rarities that speak to both scholars and general audiences.  Academics will find it a handy guide to Edison’s film-related career, while others will appreciate it as a refreshingly straightforward and entertaining history book unimpeded by obscure and ponderous references, jargon and footnotes.  Journal of Popular Film and Television.

 

Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography. (Washington, D. C. and Friuli, Italy: Smithsonian Institution Press and Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1997); incorporates Filmmaking for Edison’s Kinetoscope, 1890-1895: A Filmography with Documentation (New York: Center for Film and Historical Research, 1994).  Honorable Mention, Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize in Film, TV and Video Studies.  Honorable Mention, Theater Library Book Award.  “A model for works of this sort, Musser’s filmography not only includes detailed information on every Edison film (Fred Ott’s Sneeze is already number nineteen), but frame enlargements when available, and extensive annotations and bibliographic interpolations.  Clearly this is an invaluable labor of love from Musser and everyone connected with it…” Film Comment.

Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1890-1910. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2005) as second author; first author Nancy Mowell Mathews. Catalog for touring show.   Grey Art Gallery, New York City: September-December 2006.

 

Books in process

Media Shifts: Transformations in Audio-Visual Media and the US Presidential Elections of 1892/1896 and 2004/2008

 Theater Transformed: Stage and Screen in the 1920s.

 Crossing Boundaries:  Paul Robeson, Performance and Film

 Truth and Documentary in the Age of George W. Bush

May’s Kiss:  The 20-second Film that Changed American Culture

Films:

Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch [incorporates Plan B: A Conversation with Errol Morris at the Globe Department Store.] (New York: New York-Hollywood Feature Film Company, 2011). A 70-minute documentary that was shown as a work in progress at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven) as part of “A Weekend with Errol Morris and His Films.”

Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (New York: New York-Hollywood Feature Film Company, 1982), 60-minute documentary funded in part by the NEA and NYSCA.  Screenings at New York, Berlin, London, Los Angeles (Filmex), Sydney, New Delhi, Florence (Festival dei Populi) and Milan (American Independent) film festivals.  Kino video release, 1998.  “the rare document that enchants while it educates, bristling with social history, movie gossip, and all the fresh wonder of a pioneer smacking his lips at his newfoundland.”––Carrie Rickey, Village Voice.  One of the year’s best documentaries––Rickey, Village Voice.

An American Potter (New York: New York-Hollywood Feature Film Company, 1976) 36-minute documentary on craftsman Gerry Williams.  Funded in part by NEA.  “Blue Ribbon,” American Film Festival; “Best in Category –Fine Arts,” S.F. Film Festival; CINE “Golden Eagle.”  “Stretches far beyond the confines of the studio into the philosophical and psychological regions in which all life thrives.”––Denise Hare, Crafts Horizon.

Editor:

Black Representations, special issue of Film History 23:2 (2011).

Documentary Before Verité, special issue of Film History 18:4 (2006).

Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Period, co-edited with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines (Indiana University Press, Friuli-Germona, Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2001). “an informative, interesting, and very important collection of essays…lively and readable, casting light on an underrepresented facet of American film history.” Library Journal, August 2001, 112.

Resisting Images: Essays on Cinema and History co-edited with Robert Sklar (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).  Expands a special issue on film and history in Radical History Review, Spring 1988 (No. 41).  Special NYSCA grant for this issue. Part of the MARHO series.

Before Hollywood: Turn of the Century American Film (New York: American Federation for the Arts, 1987), with Jay Leyda.  “A  fascinating look at the cinema that flourished between 1895 and 1915 in America, before movies could be mentioned in family newspapers.”–New York Times.

Motion Picture Catalogs by American Producers and Distributors 1894-1908: A Microfilm Edition. (Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1984.) With the Thomas Edison Papers. “Everything about this project is exemplary.  All six reels of microfilm are easy to read.  To accompany the microfilm reels, UPA has issued a splendid fifty-page booklet, with an informative text by Charles Musser, along with a detailed listing of each item on the microfilm.  This project can be recommended for all libraries with extensive motion picture related holdings and should be a mandatory acquisition for any student or scholar studying the early years of the American film industry.” –Microfilm Review.

 

General Editor, Smithsonian Institution Press.  A  book series focusing on History of American Film and Media.  Published:

–Kyoko Hirano, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945-1952 (1992).

–Gaylyn Studlar and David Desser, eds., Reflection in a Male Eye: John Huston and the American Experience (1993).

–Gregory Waller, Main Street Amusements: Movies and Commercial Entertainments in a Southern City, 1896-1930 (1995),winner of the Theater Library Association Award for best book on motion pictures, radio and television (1995) and the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for best book in Film, TV and Video Studies (1995-97).

–Frank Couvares, ed., Cinema and Censorship (1996)

–Jan Christopher Horak, Making Images Move: Photographers and Avant-garde Cinema (1997)

–Frank Krutnick, Inventing Jerry Lewis (2000)

Articles and Reviews on Ethnicity and Race in American Cinema

– “Robeson and Britain’s Cinema of Empire” in Lee Grieveson and Colin McCabe, eds. Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire (forthcoming)

– “Why Did Negroes Love Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer?:  Melodrama, Blackface and Cosmopolitan Theatrical Culture” in Film History, 23:2 (2011) 198-222.

-“Paul Robeson and the End of His ‘Movie’ Career,” Cinemas 19:1 (2009), 147-179.

–”Despite All Barriers: Paul Robeson & Song of the Rivers,” in André Stufkens, ed., Cinema Without Borders: The Films of Joris Ivens: A Catalog (Nijmegen, The Netherlands: European Foundation Joris Ivens, 2002), 62-71.

-“African Americans and Film, 1894-1914” in Phyllis Klotman, ed., African Americans and the Cinema, CD (Black Film archive/University of Indiana, 2002).

“The Colored Players Film Corporation, An Alternative to Micheaux” in Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines and Charles Musser eds., Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 178-187.

-“Richard D. Maurice and the Maurice Film Company” (with Pearl Bowser) in Bowser, Gaines and Musser eds., Oscar Micheaux and His Circle, 190-194.

-“To Redream the Dreams of White Playwrights: Resistance and Reappropriation in Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul,” in Yale Journal of Criticism, 12:2 (1999), 321-356; reprinted in Charlene Regester, Blacks in Film (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2003),  Revised and expanded version in Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines and Charles Musser eds., Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 97-131.  Winner of the Katherine Kovacs Prize for Outstanding Scholarship (essay) published in 1999-2000.

-“Troubled Relations: Paul Robeson, Eugene O’Neill and Oscar Micheaux,” in Jeffrey Stewart, ed., Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1998), 81-102+.

-“William Greaves: Chronicler of the Afro-American Experience,” Film Quarterly 45:3 (Spring 1992), 513-25, reprinted in Michael T. Martin, ed., Cinemas of the Black Diaspora : Diversity, Dependence & Oppositionality (Detroit: Wayne State Press, 1995), 389-404 (with Adam Knee).

–“Ethnicity, Roleplaying and Film Comedy,” in Lester Friedman, ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema (Carbondale: University of Illinois: 1991), 41-81.

-“L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E: Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing,” Cineaste 17:4 (1990), 37-38.

 

Articles and Essays on Documentary Film and Photography:

–“Political Documentary, YouTube and the 2008 US Presidential Election: Focus on Robert Greenwald and David N. Bossie,” Studies in Documentary Film 4:1 (2010), 199-210.

–“Truth and Rhetoric in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11,” in Mathew Bernstein, ed., Michael Moore: Filmmaker, Newsmaker, Cultural Icon (University of Michigan Press, 2010), 167-201.

–“Carl Marzani & Union Films: Making Left-wing Documentaries during the Cold War, 1946-53” The Moving Image, 9:1 (Spring 2009): 116-172.

–“Film Truth in the Age of George W. Bush,” Framework 48:2 (Fall 2007), 9-35.

-“Introduction: Documentary Before Verité,” Film History 18:4 (2006), 355-360.

-“ Presenting “a True Idea of the African of To-day”: Two Documentary Forays by Paul and Eslanda Robeson, in Film History 18:4 (2006), 412-439.

-“The Search for an Achievable Utopia: Robeson and Documentary” in Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (Criterion DVD Set), pp 45-52.

–”Utopian Visions in Cold War Documentary: Paul Robeson, Joris Ivens & Song of the Rivers (1954),” in Cinémas: Revue d’etudes Cinématographiques vol.12, no 3 (Spring 2002/3), 109-153.

–”Changing Conceptions of Truth in Photography, Chronophotography and Cinematography, 1887-1900,” in François Albera, Marta Braun and Andre Gaudreault, eds., Stop Motion, Fragmentation: Exploring the Roots of Modern Visual Culture (Lausanne: Editions Payot, 2002), 69-90.

–Three chapters on the history of documentary 1) 1895-1930; 2) 1930-1960 and 3) 1960 to 1995) for Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, ed., The Oxford History of World Cinema (London: Oxford University Press, 1997), 86- 95, 322-333, 527-537.  Book received the 1996 Theater Library Book Award.

–”Film Truth, Documentary and the Law: Justice at the Margins,” University of San Francisco Law Review 30:4 (Summer 1996), 963-984.

–”Documentary Filmmaking in New York,” in Ken Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 337-338.

–”Locations, Fantasy, Response,” in Daan Hertogs and Nico de Klerk, eds., NonFiction From the Teens (Amsterdam: Amsterdam Workshop, 1995), 28-37.

–”Recent Soviet Documentaries,” Cineaste 17:2 (1989), 27-28.

–Dziga Vertov’s Enthusiasm, in McGill’s Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films (Los Angeles: Salem Press, 1985).

 

Articles on American Film, Adaptation and Intermediality

-“The Devil’s Parody: Horace McCoy’s Appropriation and Refiguration of Two Hollywood Musicals,” in Robert Stam and Alessandra Raengo, eds., A Companion to Literature and Film (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 229-257.

-“The Hidden and the Unspeakable: On Theatrical Culture, Oscar Wilde and Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925),” Film Studies 4 (Summer 2004), 12-47.

-“Towards a History of Theatrical Culture: imagining an integrated history of stage and screen,” in John Fullerton, ed., Screen Culture: History and Textuality (Eastleigh: England: John Libbey Publishing, 2004), 3-20.

–”DeMille, Divorce and the Comedy of Remarriage,” and “DeMille, Il Divorzio, e Le Commedie Coniugali,” in Paolo Cherchi-Usai and Lorenzo Cordelli, ed., L’Eredità DeMille/The DeMille Legacy (Pordenone: Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine, 1991), 262-283; an expanded and revised version of the above appears in Henry Jenkins and Kristine Karnick, eds., Classical Film Comedy: Narrative/Performance/ Ideology (New York: Routledge/AFI, 1994), 282-313.

 

Articles and Essays on French cinema and Jean Renoir:

–“The Clash between Theater and Film: Germaine Dulac, André Bazin and La Souriante Madame Beudet,” New Review of Film and Television Studies (5:2 (August  2007), 111-134.  Honorable Mention, Katherine Kovacs Award for Best Essay in Media Studies

-The Senses and Subjectivity: Germaine Dulac’s La Souriante Madame Beudet (1923) in The Five Senses of Cinema (Udine: 9^th Congress of the Study of the Film, 2005), 127-129.

–”L’industrie du cinéma en France et aux États-Unis entre 1900 et 1920: l’evolution du mode de production,” in Pierre-Jean Benghoizi et Christian Delage, eds., Une Histoire Économique du Cinéma Francais, 1895-1995: Regards franco-américans (Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1997), 63-80.

–”Social Roles/Political Responsibilities:  The Role of the Artist in the French Films of Jean Renoir, 1928-1939,” Film Historia, 4:1(February 1994) 3-30.

–Jean Renoir’s La Chienne, in McGill’s Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films.

–Jean Renoir’s Le Crime de  M. Lange in McGill’s Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films.

 

Articles on early and pre-classical cinema:

–      “Nationalism, Contradiction, and Identity: or, A Reconsideration of Early Cinema in the Philippines,” in Nick Deocampo, ed., Origins of Cinema in Asia: Anthology of Writings on Early Cinema in Asia (forthcoming, Indiana University Press)

–      “The Stereopticon and Cinema: Media Form or Platform?” French translation in François Albera and Maria Tortajada, eds. Ciné-dispositifs: spectacles, cinema, television, literature ˆ(Lausanne, Suisse: L’age de Homme as “Le Stereopticon et le Cinema: Forme de Media Form or Plate-forme de Medias?” 133-168, xxiii-xxiv.

–“ The Wages of Feminism: Alice Guy Blaché’s Late Feature Films,” in Joan Simon, ed., The Great Adventure: Alice Guy Blaché, Cinema Pioneer (Yale University Press, Fall 2009), 81-100.

–“1896-1897: Movies and the Beginnings of Cinema” in Andre Gaudreault, eds. American Cinema 1890-1909: Themes and Variations (New Brunsick,NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2009), 45-65.

–“A Cinema of Contemplation, A Cinema of Discernment: Spectatorship, Intertexutality and Attractions in the 1890s,” in Wanda Stauven, ed. Cinema of Attractions Reloaded (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 159-179.

“The Spectacle of Space,” in Melik Ohanian and Jean-Christophe Royoux, Cosmograms (New York: Lukas and Sternberg, 2005), 27-36.  Also appeared in Portuguese as Cosmograms (Sao Paolo, Brazil: Kristale, 2005), pp 5-6.

–“The May Irwin Kiss: Performance and Early Cinema,” in Vanessa Toulmin and Simon Popple, eds., Visual Delights-two: Exhibition and Reception (Eastleigh, UK: John Libbey, 2005), 96-115.

-“A Cornucopia of Images: Comparison and Judgment across Theater, Film, and the Visual Arts during the Late Nineteenth Century,” in Nancy Mathews with Charles Musser, Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1890-1910 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2005), 5-37.

-“’A Personality So Marked’: Eugen Sandow and Visual Culture,” in Nancy Mathews with Charles Musser, Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1890-1910 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2005), 104-110.

-“Historiographic Method and the Study of Early Cinema,” Cinema Journal 44:1 (Fall 2004), 101-107.

–”Movies, the Media and the War of 1898,” in The War of 1898 (in preparation)

–“At the Beginning: Motion Picture Production, Representation and Ideology at the Edison and Lumière companies.”   In Lee Grieveson, ed., Silent Cinema Reader (London: Routledge, 2003), 25-56.

–“Story Films Become the Dominant Product, 1903-1904,” in Lee Grievson, ed., Silent Cinema Reader (London: Routledge, 2003), 200-233.

-“Introducing Cinema to the American Public: The Vitascope in the United States, 1896-1897,” in Gregory Waller, ed., Moviegoing in America (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 13-27.

–”Nationalism and the Beginnings of Cinema: The Lumière Cinématographe in the United States, 1896-1897,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, & Television 19: 2 (June 1999), 149-176.

–”Reading Local Histories of Early Film Exhibition, Part II: Roger William Warren’s “History of the Motion Picture Exhibition in Denver, 1896-1911,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, & Television 19:2 (June 1999), 247–253.

–”Respektabilität und Aktualität.  Gedanken zum kultrellen Stellenwert von Edisons filmen in der Kinetoscope-Ära,” in KINtop, Jahrbuch zur Erforshcung  des frühen Films 6 (Basel; Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfold/Roter Stern, 1997), special issue on Aktualitäten, 67-79.

–”Filmer Buffalo Bill et Les Indiens.  Commentaires sur deux films Edison pour le kinetoscope, réalisés le 24 September 1894,” 1895 (May 1996), 63-65.

–“Reading Local Histories of Early Film Exhibition: Sylvester Quinn Breard’s ‘A History of the Motion Picture in New Orleans, 1896-1908,'” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, & Television 15:4 (1995) 581-585.

–”Film Propaganda and World War I: Images of War During the First Months of Neutrality,” Roland Cosandey and François Albera, eds. Images Across Borders, 1896-1918: Internationality in World Cinema: Representations, Markets, Influences, and Reception (Lausanne: Editions Payot, 1995), 261-271.

–”Rethinking Early Cinema:  Cinema of Attractions and Narrativity,” Yale Journal of Criticism 7:2 (1994): 203-232; reprinted in Wanda Stauven, ed. Cinema of Attractions Reloaded (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 389-416. French version: “Pour une approche du cinéma des premiers temps: Le cinéma d’attractions et la narrativité,” in Michele Lagney, Michel Marie, Jean A Gili and Vincent Pinel, eds., Les vingt Premières années du cinema français (Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1996), 147-175.

–”On ‘Extras,’ Mary Pickford, and the Red-Light Film: Filmmaking in the United States, 1913,” and an Italian translation, “Comparse, Mary Pickford e Film a Luce Rossa: Il cinema american nel 1913,” Griffithiana 50 (May 1994), 148-175.

–”Passions and the Passion Play: Theater, Film and Religion, 1880-1900,” Film History.5:4 (1993), 419-456; French version: “Les Passions et les Mystères de la Passion aux États-Unis (1880-1900) in Roland Cosandey et al., eds., Une Invention du Diable?: Cinema Des Premiers Temps et Religion (Quebec City: Les Presses de L’Université Laval, 1992), 145-186; a somewhat shortened version in Frank Couvares, ed., Cinema and Censorship (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996).

–”Pre-Classical American Cinema: Its Changing Modes of Film Production,” Persistence of Vision 9 (Fall 1991), 46-65; a somewhat revised version appears in Richard Abel, ed., Silent Film (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996), 85-108; a French version of this revision, “Le cinéma Américain des premiers temps et ses modèles de production,” appears in Vingtième siecle. Revue d’histoire  46 (April-June 1995), 45-63. A Japanese translation “Kotenki Izen no America-Eiga––Eiga Seisaku ni Okeru sono Henlcam mudo,” in Cinema 101 (Spring and Summer 1996), 32-45.

–”Work, Ideology and Chaplin’s Tramp,” in Robert Sklar and Charles Musser, eds., Resisting Images: Essays in Cinema and History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990), 36-67; This is a refined version of an article appearing in Radical History Review (Spring 1988); an earlier version also appeared as “Chaplin’s Tramp and Ideological Appropriation,” in Eileen Bowser, ed., The Slapstick Symposium (Brussels: FIAF, 1988), 61-80.  French version in Film échange No. 44 (1988), 1-17; condensed version in Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts, eds., Hollywood’s America: United States History Through Its Films (St James, NY: Brandywine Press, 1993), 53-63.

–”Vitagraph, 1901-1905. Gli anni dimenticati” in Paolo Cherchi-Usai, ed., Vitagraph Company of America (Pordenone, Italy: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1987), 87-103.

–”Benshi Search,” Wide Angle 9:2, 72-90. (with Horoshi Komatsu).

–”The Changing Status of the Actor,” in Leyda and Musser, eds., Before Hollywood: Turn of the Century Films from American Archives, 57-62; reprinted in Pamela Robertson Wojcik, Movie Acting, The Film Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004), 51-58.

–”Another Look at the ‘Chaser Theory,” Studies in Visual Communication 10:4 (November 1984), 24-44+.

–”The Travel Genre in 1903-4: The Move Toward Fictional Narrative,” Iris 2:1 (Spring 1984), 47-59; reprinted in Adam Barker and Thomas Elsaesser, Early Cinema: Space Frame Narrative (London: BFI, 1990), 123-132; Italian translation, “Il genere dei “film di viaggio” negli anni 1903-1904,” in Riccardo Redi, ed., Da Edison a Griffith (Genova: Di Giacomo Editore, 1990), 33-42.

–”Toward a History of Screen Practice,” Quarterly Review of Cinema Studies 9:1(Winter 1984), 59-69.

–”The Nickelodeon Era Begins: Establishing Hollywood’s Mode of Representation,” Framework 22/23 (Autumn 1983), 4-11.  A Japanese translation appears in Image Forum (May 1985); revised version in Adam Barker and Thomas Elsaesser, eds., Early Cinema: Space Frame Narrative, 256-273; Italian translation, “Cominicia l’era del nickelodeon,” in Riccardo Redi, ed., Da Edison a Griffith (Genova: Di Giacomo Editore, 1990), 57-71; German translation, “Die Nickelodeon-Ära beginnt,”  in Kintop 5 (1996): 13-35; Czech translation, “Éra nickelodeonu zacíná.  Vytvorení podmínek pro hollywoodsky modus reprezentace,” in Petr Szczepanik, ed., Nová Filmová Histoire (Praque: Nakladatelstvi Herrmann & synovee, 2004) 224-245

–”American Vitagraph: 1897-1901,” Cinema Journal 22:3 (Spring 1983), 4-46; and in John Fell, ed., Film Before Griffith (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 22-66; revised version, Italian translation in Paolo Cherchi-Usai, ed., Vitagraph Company of America (Pordenone, Italy: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1987), 29-102.

–”The Eden Musee in 1898: Exhibitor as Creator,” Film and History (December 1981), 73-83+.  An expanded French version appeared in film èchange (Winter 1984), 9-20.

–”The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter,” Cinema Journal 19:1(Fall 1979), 1-38.  An earlier version appeared in Roger Holman, ed., Cinema 1900-1906: An Analytic Study (London: FIAF, 1982) 261-280;  French translation in Cahiers de la Cinematheque (Winter 1979).  Article was awarded the 1978 Society for Cinema Studies Student Award for Scholarly Writing.

 

Essays, Reviews, Discussions, etc.:

Introduction: “Black Representations, Film History 23:2 (2011), 107-109.

Book Review: “Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929,” Film History vol 22, no 3 (2010), 282-285.

Book Review: “Entertainment Industrialised: The Emergence of the International Film Industry, 1890-1940,” Journal of Modern History (December 2010), 913-915.

Book Review: “The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television vol. 30, no 2 (June 2010), 229-231.

Book Review: “Seven Up,” Film Quarterly 62: 4 (Summer 2009): 91-92.

Book Review: “D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation: A History of “The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time.” Journal of American History (March 2009), 1207-1209.

Film Notes:  Grandma’s Looking Glass (G.A. Smith, 1900) and Grandpa’s Looking Glass (1902), Pordenone Silent Film Festival 2008 Catalog, pp 132-135.

Book Review:  “Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity,” Film Quarterly, 62, No 1 (Sept. 2008): 89–91

Foreword: Dan Strieble, Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema (UC Press, 2008), xii-xvi.

Liner Notes for fiip cards: “Sandow,” “The May Irwin Kiss,” Annabelle Butterfly Kiss,” “The Corbett-Courtney Fight,” for Optical Toy Company (2007).

Film Note: “On Shoes and Kisses,” Fashion in Film Festival/Between Stigma and Enigma (London, May 2006).

Film Notes:  “Incunabula,” 25^TH Pordenone Silent Film Festival 2005 Catalog, pp 115-122. (with Vanessa Toulmin)

Book Reivew: “Encyclopedia of Documentary Film,” Documentary Box  27 (2006), 33. English and Japanese editions.

-Encyclopedia Entries: “Edison Manufacturing Company,” Elias Burton Holmes, Lyman H. Howe, Edwin S. Porter,” “Eugen Sandow,” in Richard Abel, ed., Encyclopedia of Early Cinema (London: Routledge, 2005), 200-203, 303-304, 304-305, 526-517, 562-563. Theater Library Book Award for Best Book on Film and Television.

Film Note:  on A Sixth Part of the World (Vertov, 1926) (written with John MacKay)  in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2004 Catalog (Pordenone: Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2004), 55-88

Hommage: ‘Noel Burch, Film Practice und das Studium des frühen Kinos – eine persönliche Erinnerung’, in: KINtop. Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des frühen Films – 12: Theorien zum frƒhen Kino, Frankfurt am Main, Basel: Stroemfeld Verlag, 2003, pp. 87-90.

Short essays: “The Coming of Angelo” and “The Mistake” inPaolo Cherchi Usai, ed. The Girffith Project, vol 7: Films Produced in 1913 (London: BFI Publishing, 2003), 10104-108.

Letter to the Editor: Comments of the Before Screwball Issue Film History vol. 15, no 1 (2003), 110-115.

Filmography: “An Oscar Micheaux Filmography: From the Silents through His Transition to Sound, 1919-1931,” (with Corey K. Creekmur, Pearl Bowser, J. Rohald green, Charlene Regester, and Louise Spence,” in Pearl Bowser, Jane Gaines and Charles Musser eds., Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 228-277.

Filmography: “A Colored Players Film Corporation Filmography,” in Bowser, Gaines and Musser eds., Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era, 278-285.

Program notes: By Right of Birth (Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1921), The Pilgrim (Chaplin, 1923), Show Boat (Universal, 1929),  for the Giornate Del Cinema Muto (Sacile, Italy; October 2001), Body and Soul  (Micheaux, 1925), Hallelujah (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, US, 1929), The Darktown Revue (Micheaux, 1931), Ten Nights in a Bar Room (Colored Players Film Corporation, 1926), Ten Nights in a Bar Room (Blazed Trails Productions/ Arrow Film Corporation, 1921), Eleven, P.M. (written with Pearl Bowser) (Maurice Film Company, ca. 1929) in Giornate del Cinema Muto, Catalog (October 2001). 

Entries:  “The Studio System” and “Charles Chaplin” for Encyclopedia of American Studies (New York: Grolier, 2001), vol 1: 295-297; vol 4: 191-194.

Short Essay: “Turning the Tables” (on Micheaux’s Body and Soul), Film Comment (September 2000), 67-69.

Career Overview: “The Innovators 1900-1910 (Edwin Porter),” Sight and Sound, March 1999, 16-18.

Program notes: Body and Soul (1925),Sanders of the River (1935), Show Boat (1936), My Song Goes Forth (1937), Big Fella (1937), The Proud Valley (1940), Tales of Manhattan (1942), People’s Congressman (1948), Song of the Rivers (1954), Earl Robinson and Paul Robeson Sing for the DDR (1954) and Paul Robeson: Here I Stand (1999)  for retrospectives at UCLA Film & Television Archive (Los Angeles, October 1998) and/or Museum of Modern Art (June-July 1999).

Program note: Show Boat (1936) Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (11 September 1998)

Translation/Intertitles: from the French, for restoration of Symbol of the Unconquered (Oscar Micheaux, 1920) for Museum of Modern Art and Turner Entertainment.

Entry: “western films” in Howard Lamar, ed., The New Encyclopedia of the West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 364-369. (with S. B.)

Liner notes for laser disk: The Lumière Brothers First Films (Kino Video).

Notes for video box:  Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul (Kino Video, uncredited)

Foreword: for Jan-Christopher Horak’s Moving the Image: Films by Photographers (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997).

Book Review: “Futoshi Koga’s Lumière! Les Lumière! et le Japon, 1895-1995” in Film Quarterly 50:1 (Fall 1996), 62-63

Entries: “Astoria Studios,” “Biograph Company,” “Edison Manufacturing Co,” “Sidney Lumet,” “Vitagraph Company” in Ken Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 64, 110, 364, 699-700, 1229-1230.

Entry: “Marx Brothers,” in The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 732-733 (with David Nasaw).

Essay: “Filmmaking in New York City,” in Ken Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 403-407.

Foreword: for Gregory Waller’s Main Street Amusements: Film and Commercial Entertainments in Lexington, Ky., 1895-1930 (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995).

Homage: “‘That Crazy Italian’: Angelo Humouda,” Griffithiana (April 1995), 50-51.

Booklet:  The Movies Begin:  Annotated Notes on Five Programs of Early Films, Kino International, accompanying the release of five videos.

Book Review: Dwight W. Hoover’s Middletown: The Making of a Documentary Series, in Film Quarterly 47:2 (1994), 54-56.

Book Review:  Douglas Gomery’s Shared Pleasures, in Journal of American History 80:2 (September 1993), 711.

Foreword: for David Desser and Gaylyn Studlar, eds., Reflections in a Male Eye: John Huston and the American Experience (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).

Book Review: John Barnes’s Filming the Boer War, in Film Quarterly 46: 3 (Spring 1993), 62.

Book Review: Celia Bertin’s Jean Renoir: A Life in Pictures” in Film Quarterly  46:2 (Winter 1992-93), 54-55.

Foreword: for Kyoko Hirano’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945-1952 (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992)

Book Review: Thomas W. Benson and Carolyn Anderson’s Reality Fictions: The Films of Frederick Wiseman in Film Quarterly 45: 4 (Summer 1992), 59.

Book Review: Patricia King Hanson, executive editor, The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Feature Films, 1911-1920 in Cineaste 17:3 (1990): 64.

Book Review: “Bela Balasz,” in Cineaste 16:4 (1988), 57-58.

Book Review: “Three Books on Film Comedy,” in Film Quarterly (Summer 1988), 32-33.

Book Review: John Barnes’s The Rise of the Cinema in Great Britain, in Film Quarterly (Spring 1987), 53.

Biographical Survey:  “Edwin S. Porter,” World Film Directors, Vol 1, 1890-1945 (New York, Wilson Company, 1987), 870-881.

Book Review: Roy Rosenzweig’s Eight Hours for What We Will, in Film Quarterly (Summer 1985), 45.

Book Review: Gorham Kindem, ed., The American Movie Industry in Cineaste 14:2 (1985), 49-50.

Book Review: Richard Koszarski’s The Man You Love to Hate, in Film Quarterly (Summer 1984), 56-7.

Symposium: “The Humanities and the Moving Image Media: Institutional Self-study for the Moving Image Museum at Astoria”: participant and presented paper: “The Astoria Museum: Making an Intervention.”

Short article: “The London Film Fest: Making a Deal,” The Independent (July-August 1984), 28.

Short article: “A Filmmaker’s Diary of A Journey to Berlin,” The Independent (October 1983), 22-24.

Debate: “An Exchange with Douglas Gomery,” Cinema Journal (Summer 1983), 58-64.

Translation: from the French: article by André Gaudreault, “Detours of Film Narrative,” Cinema Journal 19: 1(Fall 1979), 39-59.

Short article: “Bob the Fireman: Une Presentation pour lanterne magique,” Cahiers de la Cinématheque (Winter 1979), 147-151.

Translation:  from the Russian: Vladamir Mayakovsky’s poem, “Film and Film,” The Independent (1976).

Short Article: “The Pottery Film,” Studio Potter (1974).

Film Reviews: Yale Daily News (1971-2).

 

Selected Lectures and Presentations:

-“When Did Cinema Become Cinema?: Problems in Historiography and Theory,” Conference on The Impact of Technological Innovations on the Historiography and Theory of Cinema, Cinémathèque Quebecoise (Montreal), 5 November 2011.

“The Unstable Text, Variable Spectators and Interpretation: Al Jolson, Blackface and The Jazz Singer” lecture in class on Theory of Media, Yale University, 13 October 2011.

-Presentation of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch, Visible Evidence 18 (New York University), 13 August  2011.

-“The Prisoner and Other Documentaries on Abu Ghraib,” The Iraq Experience, International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven, CT), 19 June 2011.

–”The Stereopticon and Cinema: Media Form or Platform?” University of Lausanne (Switzerland), 5 May 2011.

-“Shifting the Historical Paradigm from Film Studies to Media Studies:  Audio-Visual Media in the Presidential Campaigns of 1892 and 1896,” American Studies Symposium, Yale University (New Haven, CT), 29 April 2011.

-Presentation of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch, Brooklyn College, 7 April 2011.

-“”Cinema, Newspapers and the US Presidential Election of 1896,” 8th Seminar on the Origins and History of Cinema (Girona Spain), 1 April 2011.

-“Shifting the Historical Paradigm from Film Studies to Media Studies: Audio-Visual Media in The Presidential Campaigns of 1892 and 1896,” SCMS Conference (New Orleans), 12 March 2011.

“Why Did Negroes Love The Jazz Singer (1927),” presentation for English 327 (John Williams), Yale University, 2 March 2011.

-“La Via del Petrolio (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1966), Seminar on “Controversial Modernity: Cinema, Industry and Society in Italian Documentaries from ENI Archives Yale University, 24 February 2011.

-Presentation of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch, SUNY-Purchase, 16 February 2011.

-“Some Thoughts on Fantomas,” Fantomas Conference, Yale University, 12 February  2011.

-Presentation of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch, Yale University, 13 January 2011.

-Orphans Redux: Presenting The Investigators,” Anthology Film Archives (New York, NY), 12 January 2011.

-“Comments on British Documentaries, 1942-43,” Films From the Darkest Hour: Europe 1942-43 (Yale University, 4 December 2010).

-Screening & Discussion of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch (a work in progress), Queens Theatre, Belfast, Ireland, 22 November 2010.

-“Demons of Representations; Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer (1927),” (Research and Postgraduate Seminar, Queens University, Belfast Ireland, 22 November 2010)

–“Orphans of NYC: People’s Congressman (1948), DOC NYC (IFC Center, NY; 7 November 2010)

-“The Transformative Powers of Newspaper Research ––and Serendipitous Film Viewing: The Case of The Jazz Singer (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, 5 November 2010).

-Film Presentation: Plan B: A Conversation with Errol Morris at the Globe Department Store (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, 4 November 2010)

-“Film Studies-Media Studies” History and Theory of Media Seminar, Yale University, 9 November 2010.

-“Documentary and the Public Humanities,” for AMST903a, Introduction to Public Humanities (Yale University, 1 November 2010).

-“ Demons of Racial Representation: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer ,” guest lecture, English 127a Yale University (13 October 2010).

–“Robeson and Colonial Cinema,” Colonial Film Conference, Bierbeck College (London, UK; 7 July 2010)

-“Virtual Binaries: The Documentaries of Errol Morris,” International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven, CT, 19 June 2010)

-“ The Environmental Documentary and the Contemporary Moment,” SCMS Conference (Los Angeles, CA, 19 March 2010).

-“How Alice Guy Blache: Worked Through her Anxieties on Film,” Alice Guy Blache: After the Exhibition, Maison Française, Columbia University (New York, 13 March 2010)

-Comments on Native Land,” Leo Hurwitz Retrospective, Anthology Film Archive (New York, 12 March 2010).

– Respondent, Graduate Student Conference on Exhibition, Yale University (New Haven, CT., 28 January 2010).

– Panelist, Roundtable “Alice Guy Blaché´: Cinema Pioneer,” in conjunction with the opening of the Alice Guy Blaché Retrospective @ the Whitney Museum, Fall and Winter Readings, 192 Books (New York City, 5 November 2009).

-“The Beginnings of Cinema/The Rise of YouTube,” Film Studies Program Colloquium on the Discipline, Yale University, 30 October 2009.

-““The Historical and Theoretical Framework of Cinema Verité,” Visible Evidence Conference, USC (Los Angeles, CA, 17 August 2009).

-“ The Politics of Depicting Motion,” Planning Seminar for Edweard Muybridge Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., 9 June 2009).

–“Nationalism, Contradiction and Identity: Reassessing the Origins of Filipino Cinema,” Krtitika Kultura Lecture Series, Ateneo de Manila University (Quezon City, Philippines, 8 May 2009).

–“Looking for Cinema Verité’s Theoretical Roots,” Cinema Verité Then, Cinema Verité Now Conference, Yale University, 2 May 2009.

-“From The Beginnings of Cinema to YouTube and Our Computers,” Conference on the History of Film Theory (Udine, 25 March 2009)

–“Looking for Cinema Verité’s Theoretical Roots,” Cinema Verité Then, Cinema Verité Now Conference, Yale University, 2 May 2009.

-“The Documentaries of Abu Ghraib,” St. Paul’s School, 27 February 2009.

-Oscar Micheaux and Cecil B. DeMille: From Within Our Gates to Symbol of the Unconquered,” Faded Glory: Oscar Micheaux and the Pre-War Black Independent Cinema Conference (Columbia University, Feb 6-7, 2009)

-“Victorian Film,” Material Study Sessions (with Vanessa Toulmin), Annual meeting, North American Victorian Studies Association, Yale University) 14 and 15 November 2008.

–“ Le Retour de la Vie and La Vie est a Nous,” 1936: Film Fronts, Yale University, 16 October 2008.

–“The Brighton Conference, 30 Years Later,” panel, Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), 7 October 2008.

-“Demons of Representation: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer,” Colgate University, 22 September 2008.

“The Documentaries of Abu Ghraib,” Hamilton College, 21 September 2008.

“Clyde Taylor, Cinema and “to be Underdeveloped,” A Celebration of Professor Clyde Taylor, New York University, 20 September 2008.

–“Documentary and Abu Ghraib,” Visible Evidence Conference, University of Lincoln, (Lincoln, UK; August 6, 2008)

–“John Szwed and Film Studies,” Conference in Honor of John Szwed, Yale University 9 May 2008.

-“Revisiting the Touchy Subject of Race: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer,” Emory University (Atlanta, April 7, 2008)

-“People’s Congressman & Union Films: Progressive/Left Wing Filmmaking Immediately After World War II,” Orphans 6; A Film Symposium, New York University (29 March 2008).

–“Joris Ivens’s A Tale of the Wind,” conference on 1989: Film Culture and the Fall of the Wall, Yale University (February 9, 2008)

-“Writing and Research: Everyday Habits and Exceptiona Moments,” Comparative Literature Dept, Yale University, October 29, 2007.

“On Charles Burnett,” Introductory talk for a conversation with Charles Burnett, “The Films of Charles Burnett,” Cinema at the Whitney (Yale University, 20 October 2007)

-“ Early Cinema in Asia, India & the Philippines,” Conference on Origins of Cinema in Asia, 9^th Osian’s Cinefan, The Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema (New Delhi, India; 22 July 2007)

-“New Tricks for Old Dogs: Film Historical Research and the Internet,” Symposium: “Open Collections: Exploring Online Cultural Resources,” American Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), 18 June 2007.

–“Edison and Lumière: Early Cinema, Fine Art and the Clash of Cultures,” Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), 19 April 2007.

-“Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Cinema, 1880-1910: A Film Scholar’s Viewpoint,” Film & Video Within the Gallery Walls Round Table, SCMS Conference (Chicago, Il, 8 March 2007).

–“Long Live Titay Molina, Edward Meyer Gross and Filipino Film Culture; or, a Reconsideration of Early Cinema in the Philippines,” SCMS Conference (Chicago, Il, 8 March 2007).

–“Film Truth in the Age of George W. Bush,” War, Documentary and Iraq: A Conference at Yale University (New Haven, Ct.), 2 February 2007.

–“The Dawn of Cinema and the Transformation of American Culture,” One Day University (Purchase, New York), 18 November 2006.

“Truth and Documentary in the Age of George W. Bush,” F. Ross Johnson Distinguished Speaker Series, Centre for the Study of the United States, University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) 11 November 2006.

–Moderator of Panel: “Moving Pictures: Fine Art, Early Cinema and the Politics of Culture,” Center for Media and Religion (NYU, New York), 20 October 2006

Panelist, “New Trends in Film Studies,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Sacle, Italy), 12 October 2006.

–“Lumiere and Edison: The Beginnings of Cinema and the Clash of Culture” La Maison Française (NYU, New York), 3 October 2006

–“The Thread of Destiny: New York and the Origins of the Cinema,” with Deac Rossell, New York Film/Video Council (Eastman Kodak Company, New York), 5 May 2006.

-Colloquium: “May Irwin’s Kiss: The Beginnings of Cinema and the Transformation of American Culture,” Colloquium, Comparative Media Program, MIT (Cambridge, Ma.), 4 May 2006.

–Testimonial for Don Krim,” Anthology Film Archives Awards, New York City, 27 March 2006.

-“ May Irwin’s Kiss: Film and the Transformation of Culture,” Clark Art Institute, (Williamstown, MA), 28 February 2006.

-Joris Ivens at a Crossroads: La Seine Meets Paris (1957) Europe at the Crossroads: Cinema circa 1956 Conference, Yale University (New Haven, Ct, 9 February 2006).

-May Irwin’s Kiss: Film and the Transformation of Culture, “Lookalikeness” Conference, Duke University (Durham, NC), 13 January 2006.

-The Clash between Theater and Film: Germaine Dulac in the 1920s,” “What is Theater in What is Cinema?: A Symposium around André Bazin, Yale University 3 December 2005.

-“Art and Cinema: Challenges and Questions Posed by the Moving Pictures Exhibition,” Conference on Moving Pictures: Art and Early Cinema, 1880-1910, Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, Mass.: 21 October 2005) (keynote)

-Participant, Panel Discussion Francesco Casetti’s The Eye of the 20^th Century,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (9 October 2005)

-‘The New Film Truth: Documentary after 9/11,” Visible Evidence Conference XII (Montreal, Canada), 23 August 2005  (plenary)

-“Edison and Lumière: a Comparison,” Appreciating Early Film History, University of Philippines-Dilman (Quezon City), 29 July 2005

-“Early Film History; Its Subject and Its Writing,” Origins of Cinema in South East Asia Conference (Mowelfund Film Institute, Quezon City, Philippines) 27 July 2005.

-Edison: the Invention of the Movies” Con Edison (Queens, New York) 9 June 2005

-“Film Truth/Legal Truth: Documentaries versus the Courts,”  Documentary and the Law Conference, Hofstra University (New York; 5 May 2005).

-“ Documentary and the War in Iraq: The Emergence of a New Film Truth,” Humanities Institute SUNY-Stoney Brook (Stoney Brook, NY; 2 May 2005).

-Views of a Filmmaker turned Scholar and Administrator,” on panel “FILM EDUCATORS: CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT?”  Yale in Cinema, Newport Beach Film Festival (Newport Beach, Ca., 23 April 2005)

-“Jay Leyda as a Teacher,” for Jay Leyda: His Life, Work and Legacy Conference (NYU, 9 April  2005)

-“Robeson’s Core Films,” Paul Robeson International Conference (Lafayette College, 8 April 2005)

-“The Uncertain Future: Humphrey Jennings’s Diary for Timothy (1945),” Somewhere in Europe Circa 1945  (Yale University, 17 February 2005)

-“Film and Night,” presentation for Shelia de Brettville’s course “Night,” (Yale University, 9 February 2005)

-“Film Truth and The Think Blue Line,” invited talk, Documentary and the Law course (Prof Regina Austin), University of Pennsylvania Law School, 27 October 2004.

Invited Participant and session co-chair, Re-Assembling the Programme Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands Filmmuseum, 21-24 July 2004)

-Gallery Talk (with Toni Dorfman), “Stage Struck in America: Artists, Entertainers & Audiences, 1906-1956,” Yale Art Gallery, 16 April 2004.

-Panel Member, “The Strange Case of The Fall of Jerusalem,” (Columbia, South Carolina; Orphan Film Symposium, 26 March 2004)

-“Versions and Variations: Two Films by Germaine Dulac,” (Gradisca, Italy; International Film Studies Spring School; Topic: Multiple Versions at the Beginning of the Sound Era: Film and Other Media; 19 March 2004)

-“The Senses and Subjectivity: Germaine Dulac’s La Sourinate Madame Beudet (1923),” (Udine, Italy; The Five Sense of Cinema Conference (XI Convegno Internazionale di Studi sul Cinema, 17 March 2004,)

-“Virtual Binaries: The Documentaries of Errol Morris,” SCMS Conference (Atlanta, March 5, 2004)-chaired session on Film Truth, Memory and the Films of Errol Morris

-“Paul Robeson and the End of His Movie Career,” Black Cinema Reconsidered Conference (NYU, November 7, 2003)

-“ Alice Guy and La Fee aux Choux: A Response to Jane Gaines,” University Seminars, Columbia University (New York, Oct 23, 2003)

-“Ivan Mojuskine and Germain Dulac: Some Thoughts on French Cinema of the 1920s,” Collegia, Giornate del Cinema Muto (Sacile, Italy, Oct 18, 2003)

-“ The Soul of Cinema: Film, Theater, and Germaine Dulac,” Dulac Conference (University of California-Berkeley, Sept 25, 2003)

-“ Memory & History: The Documentary Films of Errol Morris,” University of Lugano/Italian Switzerland (Lacarno, August 7, 2003)

-“Memory & History: The Documentary Films of Paul Robeson,” University of Lugano/Italian Switzerland (Lacarno, August 6, 2003)

-“Insiders’ View of Yale,” Reunion Weekend, Yale University (May 29, 2003)

–“May irwin’s Kiss: Film and the Trnasformation of Theatrical Culture,” University of Chicago (sponsored by Mass Culture Workshop, May 6, 2003).

–“Paul Robeson’s Documentary Forays,” University of Chicago (sponsored by the Race/Film Study Group, May 5, 2003).

–“Visual, Material and Performance Culture in American Studies,” Yale University (New Haven, Ct.) 11 April 2003.

-Chair and commentator, Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: One Year Later, Africana  Studies, New York University, 9 November 2002

Paul Robeson and My Song Goes Forth (1937): History & Context,” Margaret Mead Film Festival (New York) 8 November 2002

-Paul Robeson and Africa: My Song Goes Forth (1937), Orphans of the Storm Conference (Columbia, SC), 26 September 2002

-Edison and Motion Pictures,” Edison National Historic Site (West Orange, NJ), 18 August 2002

-“Film and Theatre: The Case of the May Irwin Kiss (1896),” British Film Institute (London), 16 July 2002.

-“May Irwin and Her Kiss,” Visual Delights: A Conference on Turn of the Century Visual Culture (Sheffield, England), 13 July 2002.

-“Introduction to American premiere of the restored Emperor Jones (1933), American Museum of the Moving Image, 18 May 2002.

-“Ivens, Pudovkin, Robeson: Rivers and Film,” Joris Ivens Retrospective, Walter Reade Theater, 23 March 2002.

-“Constructing Racial Identities in the Cinema: From D.W. Griffith to Oscar Micheaux’s Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Rhode Island College, 14 November 2001.

-A Close Look at La Souriante Madame Beudet<” Women and the Silent Screen Conference, 3 November 2001 (UC-Santa Cruz, ca)

-Oscar Micheaux and Race Cinema,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Sacile, Italy), 13-21 October 2001 (several talks and presentations).

– “From Griffith and the Nickelodeons to Micheaux and Race Cinema: Constructing Identities, 1906-1920,” Plenary presentation, IAMHIST Conference, Universitat Leipzig (20 July 2001)

-“Presenting Africa: Two Documentary Forays by Paul and Eslanda Robeson,” Society For Cinema Studies Conference (Washington, D.C), 25 May 2001.

–“Robeson and Documentary Film,” American Studies Symposium, Yale University, 4 May 2001.

-“Dulac’s La Souriante Madame Beudet,” Cinema Studio, Trinity College (Hartford, Ct), 19 April 2001.

-“His Films Go Forth: The Orphaned Films of Paul Robeson,”

-Panel Member, “Boola Boola…Yale Goes Coed,” Yale University Centennial (New Haven), 20 March 2001.

-Commentator, Key Cinema Series on What’s Cooking (2000), Madison, Ct., 5 November 2000.

-Discussant of Within Our Gates, “Screening Prejudice,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, 3 November 2000.

-“The British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Sacile, Italy), 18 October 2000.

“Reconceptions of Truth in Photography/Cinematography, 1887-1900,” Stop Motion and Fragmentation of Time Conference (Montreal, 4-7 October 2000)

“Theater and Film in the 1920s: Reception Among African-American Audiences,” NorFA Research Seminar on Reception: Film, TV, Digital Culture (Stockholm University, Stockholm), 5 Jun 2000.

–”Actors and Spectators: The Dialectics of Imagination and Roleplaying,” SCS Conference (Chicago, Ill), 12 March 2000.

–”Theater and Film 1894-1925: Some Reflections,” Brown University, 8 December 1999.

–”Paul Robeson and the End of His Film Acting Career,” American Studies Association Conference (Montreal, Canada), 28 October 1999.

–”Memory and the Silent Films of Oscar Micheaux,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Sacile, Italy), 19 October 1999.

–”A Symbol of the Unconquered: Oscar Micheaux  and His Silent Films,” Orphans of the Storm Conference, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC), 24 September 1999.

–” Paul Robeson: From Fiction to Documentary: Some Theoretical Issues Raised by Tales of Manhattan (1942) ” Museum of the City of New York (New York), 11 June 1999.

–”Jay Leyda et le projet historique des debuts du cinema americain,” Université de Paris VIII (Paris, France),11 May 1999.

–Nationalism and Cinema: An Historical Perspective,”  George Eastman House (Rochester, NY), 5 May 1999.

–”Movies and Media in the War of 1898,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (West Palm Beach, FL) 17 April 1999.

–”They Shoot Horses Don’t They: Horace McCoy’s Refiguration of Two Warner Brothers Musicals,” University Seminar on Film and Interdisciplinary Interpretation, Columbia University (New York), January 1999.

–”Movies, the Media and the War of 1898,” Duke University, 2 December 1998.

–”The Uses of Contradiction: Paul Robeson and Film,” Paul Robeson: Star of Stage and Screen Symposium, UCLA, 11 October 1998.

–Paul Robeson and Show Boat,” Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Beverly Hills, Ca.), 11 September 1998.

–”A Separate Cinema,” panel discussion, Apollo Theater  (New York City), 7 July 1998.

–”Screening New York,” Municipal Art Society (New York, NY), 17 and 24 June 1998.

–”Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle,” Landmarks of African-American Cinema, Rutgers University-Camden,13 April 1998.

–”Paul Robeson: Ideological Entrapment and Contradiction,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (San Diego, Ca.), 6 April 1998.

-“Edison Films in the Year 1898,” Guest Speaker, The War of 1898 Conference, Dartmouth College, 2 April 1998.

–”Resistance and Reappropriation: Critical Strategies in Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul,” American Studies Association Conference (Washington, D.C.), 1 November 1997.

–”On Early Cinema Filmographies,” Roundtable discussion with Michele Aubert of the National Film Center, Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy) October 1997.

–“Before the Rapid Firing Kinetograph: Representation and Exploitation in Edison Films of the 1890s,” Thomas A. Edison Conference, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, N.J.) 26 June 1997.

–”Troubled Relations: Robeson, Eugene O’Neill and Oscar Micheaux,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Ottawa, Canada), 17 May 1997.

–”Documentary Film and the Rise of Multi-Culturalism, 1968-1975″ Yale-New Haven Teachers’ Institute (New Haven), 26 March 1996.

-“Film Truth and Legal Rights of Marginal Groups,” Conference on Law and Lawyers in the Visual Media (San Francisco, Ca.), 21 March 1996.

–”Caught Comically Between Theater and Film: Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan” Society  for Cinema Studies Conference (Dallas, Texas), 7-10 March 1996.

-“American and French Cinema during the 1910s: World War I and Changing Modes of Production,”  Histoire du cinema français Conference (Paris, France), 15 February 1996.

-“Who Invented Cinema: A  Debate,” National Film Theatre (BFI, London), 26 October 1995.

–”Representations at a Historic Conjunction,” Celebrating 1895: An International Conference on Cinema Before 1920, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (Bradford, England), 16 June 1995.

–”Nationalism and Discourse: The Lumière Cinématographe in the United States, 1896-1898,” Congres Lumière (Lyons, France), 7 June 1995.

–”Cinema’s Beginnings in the United States,” keynote speaker, Annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Image Arts and Science (Kobe, Japan), 2 June 1995.

–”Hollywood Cinema and Mass Production: Reconsidering the Factory System of Production,” presentation at the Paris Center for Critical Studies (Paris France) 17 May 1995.

–”From Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones to Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul,” Smith College, 25 April 1995.

–”African American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era,” Yale-New Haven Teachers’ Institute, 24 April 1995.

–”They’d Shoot Ruby Keeler, Wouldn’t They?: Horace McCoy’s Refiguration of Two Warner Brothers Musicals,” Society for Cinema Studies (New York, NY), 6 March 1995.

–”Resistance, Collaboration, and Reappropriation: From Eugene O’Neill’sThe Emperor Jones to Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul.” Oscar Micheaux and His Circle Conference, Yale University, January 1995.

–”American Slapstick,” Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Pordenone, Italy) October 1994.

–”Movie-making for Edison’s Kinetoscope:  Production, Representation and Exploitation.”

American Center (Paris, France), in conjunction with opening of the “Before Hollywood Series,” October 1994.

–”Celebrating the Spirit of Collaboration,” Thomas A. Edison Papers (Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, NJ), 8 September 1994.

–The Significance of Locale in Early Documentary Film,” Netherlands Film Museum (Amsterdam, June 1994).

–Three-day Workshop on “Constructing the Hollywood Cinema: Considering the First 20 Years of American Film,” Cinemateca Nacional (Caracas, Venezuela), 16-18 May 199).

–”Movie-making for Edison’s Kinetoscope:  Production, Representation and Exploitation.” Williams Center for the Arts (Rutherford, NJ), 23 April 1994.

–French Cinema: History and Historiography. commentator, CUNY-Graduate Center, 5 April 1994.

–”Anxieties of Consumption: Advertising and Gender in American Film Comedies of the late 1950s.” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Syracuse, NY), 4-6 March 1994.

–”Rethinking Early Cinema:  Cinema of Attractions and Narrativity,” Conference on “Les 20 premières années du cinema français,” Sorbonne (Paris), 4-6 November 1993.

–”Documentary and New York City,” for NEH seminar, New York University, 21 June 1993.

–”Rethinking Film History:  Primitive Cinema, Early Cinema, Cinema of Attractions,” The Movies Begin Conference, Yale University, May 1993.

–”Documentary Film and the Rise of Multi-Culturalism, 1968-1975″ presentation at the OAH (Anheim, Ca.), April 1993.

–”Power, Moving Images and the Los Angeles Riots,” presentation at the Society for Cinema Studies (New Orleans), February 1993.

–”Documentary Film and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis of 1968,” New York University, December 1992.

–”Reconsidering Cinema’s Beginnings: Image, Projection, Editing,” George Eastman House (Rochester, NY), September 1992.

–”Opposing and Reworking Melodrama: American Documentary and the Theater , 1960-1972,” BFI melodrama Conference (London), July 1992.

–”Film and Propaganda in America during the Period of Neutrality, 1914-1917,” Domitor Conference (Lausanne), June 1992.

–”Censorship and Film Comedy,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) May 1992.

–Panel member for day long symposium discussing film JFK, “History as Fiction, Film as Truth,” UCLA Film and Television Archive, April 1992.

–”War, Masculinity and Comedy: Preston Sturges Looks At Small Town America,” New-York Historical Society, March 1992.

–”Documentary Film and the Rise of Multi-Culturalism, 1968-1975″ Cal State-Fullerton, Feb 1992.

–”Ethnic Diversity and Documentary Practice in New York City,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Los Angeles), May 1991.

–Respondent, Panel on Reviewing Historical Documentaries, American Historical Association Conference (New York, December 1990).

–”Film Truth: From Kino Pravda to The Thin Blue Line” University of Wisconsin at Madison (November 1990)

–”The Challenge Posed by American Studies to Cinema Studies: The Cutting Off of Historical Perspective,” American Studies Association Conference (New Orleans), November 1990.

–”Film Truth:  The Challenge posed by The Thin Blue Line and Who Killed Vincent Chin?” Conference on Representations of the State, New York University, October 1990.

–”Capitalism and Hollywood: The Movies as Corporate Product,” Communication Forum, MIT Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (Cambridge, Ma.), October 1990.

–”Film Truth and The Presentation of Self,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Washington), May 1990.

–”From Lights and Shadows to City Symphonies,” American Historical Association (San Francisco), December 1989.

–”Jean Renoir Investigates: The Artist’s Role in Society,” Renoir Conference, NYU, December 1989.

–”Memory, Narrative and Radio Bikini,” Seminar on History and Culture on Film, New York University, September 1989.

–”Early Cinema and Its Modes of Production,” Society for Cinema Studies (Iowa City, IA.) March 1989.

– “Film Comedy and the Coming of Sound,” American Studies Association (), October 1988.

–”Ethnicity and Film Comedy in New York City,” IREX Conference on New York/Budapest 1880-1930 (Budapest, Hungary), August 1988.

–”Early Film Adaptations of Stage Melodramas,” New York Public Library, April 1988.

–”Nickels Count: The Nickelodeon Era Begins,” Columbia University Seminar, October 1987.

–Panel member, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), October 1987.

–Respondent on Early Cinema panel, Society for Cinema Studies (Montreal), spring 1987.

–Presentation in conjunction with opening of “Before Hollywood” show, Whitney Museum (New York, NY), January 1987.

–Presentation of current research, University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Speech (Madison) April 1986.

–Panel Chair: Biography as Historical Strategy: Its Uses/Abuses and Theory/Practice, Society for Cinema Studies Conference (New York), June 1985.

–”Chaplin and Slapstick Comedy,” FIAF Conference at Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), May 1985.

–Presentation of Before the Nickelodeon, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, April 1985.

–Japan Tour with Before the Nickelodeon, March 1985.

–Paper presention, Modern Language Association Conference (Washington, D.C.), December 1984.

–”Toward a History of Screen Practice,” Society for the History of Technology Conference  (Boston, 2 November 1984).

–Paper presentation, Society for Cinema Studies (Madison, Wi.) April 1984.

–Presented several programs of films by Edwin Porter in conjunction with a screening of Before the Nickelodeon, Chicago Art Institute and Ohio State University.

–George Eastman House (December 1983) with Before the Nickelodeon (March 1983).

–Toured with Before the Nickelodeon to Pacific Film Archives, Kansas City Movie Center, Webster College, University of Nebraska and University of Iowa (September 1983).

–”The Suppressed Films of Edwin S. Porter,” University of East Anglia (England), December 1983.

–Presentation of Before the Nickelodeon and a paper, Society for Cinema Studies Conference and Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, March 1983).

–”Contra the Robert Allen Theories,” Columbia University Seminar (New York), September 1983.

–Paper presentation, Society for Cinema Studies Conference (Los Angeles), July 1982.

–”The Exhibitor as Creator: Edwin Porter at the Eden Musee,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference (New York, NY), April 1981.

–Discussed researching American cinema in Dissertation Seminar, Columbia University (Fall 1980).

–Lecture tour funded by NEH, New Jersey State Libraries (1979-80).

–Presented a group of early films (with Tom Gunning), Collective for Living Cinema (New York 1979).

–”The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter,” FIAF Conference (Brighton, England, 1978).

–Presentation of An American Potter, Boston Public Library  (1977).

–Presented paper on Porter’s Life of An American Fireman arguing that the copyright version corresponded closely to the original release, American Seminar on Film (New York, 1977).

 

Filmmaking Experience:

2010-11: producer/director/editor Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch.  70 min. documentary on Errol Morris.

 

1988-89: researcher:  In the Blood, documentary feature film on the Roosevelt Family, directed by George Butler.

1985: creative consultant:  Hard Choices, fictional feature directed by  Rick King.  Filmex.  “It tells a riveting story and sucks the audience into its grip with wrenching force.” Rex Reed, N.Y. Post.  “One of the year’s ten best.” –Roger Ebert

 

1983-4: co-producer/editor: 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation, 30 min. documentary about the 1877 general strike, the first general strike in the United States.  Produced & directed by Stephen Brier. 2nd prize, American History, National Educational Film Fest; Silver Medal, Houston International Film Fest.

 

1982: producer/director/co-writer/editor: Before the Nickelodeon, 60 min. documentary on Edwin Porter and early cinema. Funded in part by NEA and NYSCA. New York, Berlin, London, Los Angeles (Filmex), Sydney, New Delhi, Florence (Festival dei Populi) and Milan (American Independent) film  festivals.

1982: editor: Staus, 60 min. dramatic film produced by the Labor Theater.  Funded by the NEH.

1981: researcher: Zelig, directed by Woody Allen.

1980-1: head of research: Ragtime, directed by Milos Forman. A Dino de Laurentiis Production.

1979-80: associate producer/editor: A Private Life, 30 min. dramatic film directed by Mikhail Bogin.  A Peter O. Almond Production.  Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival.

1977-8: producer/editor: Between the Wars. Four episodes in a 16-part documentary series on American foreign policy between WWI and WWII. A Mobil Showcase. Alan Landsburg Productions. “A first-rate series”–N.Y. Times.

1976: Producer/director/editor: An American Potter, 36 min. documentary, “Blue Ribbon,” American Film Festival; “Best in Category –Fine Arts” S.F. Film Festival; CINE “Golden Eagle”; PBS Broadcast.

1975-6: editor/writer:  Sons of Bwiregi, 28 min. documentary filmed inTanzania.  Amram Nowak Associates.

1972-4: 1st asst. editor: Hearts and Minds: feature documentary directed by Peter Davis; Oscar, “Best Documentary”; Prix Georges Sadoul.

1972:  camera: Film produced by  D. A. Pennebaker  for  the French Cinématheque.  On Henri Langlois.

additional credits on request.

Reviews about and Interviews with:

Reviews of Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: Film Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 3, (2005),  65-67; Library Journal, August 2001, 112; Afterimage September/October 2001, 11-13; Data Newsweekly (New Orleans), 8 September 2001; Black Issues Book Review, September-October 2001.

Reviews of Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography: Film  Comment 34:1 (Jan/Feb 1998), 42; Historical Journal of Film, Radio, & Television 19:2 ( June 1999), 255-257; Living Pictures1:2 (2001), 109.

Reviews of Thomas A. Edison and His Kinetographic Motion Pictures:  Journal of Popular Film and Television 25:1 (Spring 1997), 46; American Cinematographer, January 1996.

Reviews of The Emergence of Cinema: New York Times, Book Review Section, 1 September 1991, 2, 25-26;  New York Review of Books, 30 May 1991;  Los Angeles Times, 5 May 1991, Book Review Section, 5; Choice, June 1991, 1648; Griffithiana.41 (October 1991), 205-209;  Persistence of Vision 9 (Fall 1991), 107-117; American Journalism, Fall 1991, 269-272; Velvet Light Trap 28 (Fall 1991), 86-91; Film Quarterly 45:3 (Spring 1992), 54-57; Film Culture 76 (June 1992), 47-48; Cinémathèque, 1 (1992), 119-123; American Historical Review 97:4 (October 1992), 1298-1300; ANQ: Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, April/July 1993, 156-158; Bianco e nero  3/4 (1996),129-133.

Reviews of Before the Nickelodeon (book): The Nation, 4 November 1991, 557-560; Sight and Sound, October 1991, 34; Cineaste, 28:4 (Fall 1991), 55-56; Choice, December 1991, p. 603; American Historical Review, December 1992, 1614-1615; Over Here: Reviews in American Studies, 12:1, 130-131; Substance, No 70 (1993), 119-122; Business History Review (Sept 1993), 596-598.

Reviews of High-Class Moving Pictures: The New Republic, 19 August 1991, 26-27; Griffithiana.41 (October 1991), 204-205;  Cineaste, 28:4 (Fall 1991), 55-56; Film Quarterly, 45:4 (Summer 1992), 46-48; Perforations, 12:1; Pennsylvania History, 59:2 (April 1992), 175-176; Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 12:3, 279-284; American Historical Review 97:4 (October 1992), 1297-1298; Journal of American Studies, 26:3, 448-449; Academic Library Book Review (June 1993), 34-35.

Reviews of Resisting Images:  Film Quarterly, 45:4 (Winter 1991-92).

Interview:  “The Filmmaker as Scholar and Entertainer: An Interview with Charles Musser by Roberta Pearson,” Cineaste, 8:2 (1984), 22-24; “Charles Musser: pensamiento silente en blanco y negro,” El Globo, (Caracas, Venezuela) 19 May 1994, 32; “It’s Been a Lively 100 Years of Moving Pictures,” The Christian Science Monitor, 13 September 1995, 12-13; “Film Historian traces documentaries from the silent Era,” North Adams Transcript, 20-21 May 2006, 1, 9.

Reviews of Before the Nickelodeon (film):  New York Times, 9 October 1982; Variety, 13 October 1982; Village Voice, 19 Oct 1982;  Film Quarterly, Summer 1983, 21-25;  San Francisco Examiner, 9 Sept 1983; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 Sept 1983; Washington Post, 25 October 1983; The Guardian, 24 November 1983; The Times, 25 November 1983; Financial Times, 25 November 1983; Los Angeles Times, 3 December 1983; Framework, Autumn 1983; Film Monthly Bulletin (cover story), December 1983; Chicago Tribune, 23 March 1984. Library Journal, 15 October 1998.

Reviews of An American Potter:  Crafts Horizon, April 1977, 12+; Film Library Quarterly , 11:1&2 (1978), 66; Film News, 35. No. 3 (Summer 1978), 38-39.

 

Service to the Field:

–Editorial Board, Film History (1992-  )

–Editorial Board, Journal of History of Film, Radio and Television (1992-    )

–Editor, Yale Journal of Criticism (1993-1999)

–Committee Member, Preservation and Access, Society for Cinema Studies (1991-1992).

–Reader/Reviewer for Princeton University Press, University of Illinois Press, University of Wisconsin Press, University of California Press, Duke, University of North Carolina Press and NEH

–Editorial Board, Cinema Journal (Society for Cinema Studies), 1990-1992.

–Member of working group, Center for History and Culture on Film (NYU)

–Board Member, Domitor, International Society of Early Cinema. (1987-1991)

–Member of Advisory Board, AFI publication series (1986-1990)

–Member of Advisory Board, University Publications of America Cinema Series. (1987- 1997 )

–Consultant, American Museum of the Moving Image (1984-1987).

 

Service at Yale:

Film Studies Committee

Executive Committee, American Studies Program

Graduate Studies Program Committee, American Studies Program

Digital Media Center for the Arts Committee (1997-98)

Sudler Prize Committee (1996-1998, 2000-2002)

Yale Cable TV Committee (1998-2000)

 

Associations:

American Studies Association
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Local 771, IATSE (Film and Video Editors, inactive)
Domitor (Association for Early Cinema)
International Documentary Association

 

Courses Taught (through 2011)

American Cinema to 1915
American Cinema of the 1960s and early 1970s
American Documentary
American Documentary Film and Photography (co-taught with Laura Wexler, graduate/undergraduate course)
American Film and Popular Culture, 1890-1920
American Theater/American Film (as both a graduate and an undergraduate course)
Authors and Authorship: Jean Renoir and John Ford (graduate course)
Cinematic Expression
Classical Film Theory (M.A. core course)
Classical Hollywood Cinema (graduate/undergraduate course)
Contemporary Documentary Film and Video
Contemporary Problems in Documentary (combination graduate and undergraduate enrollment)
The Documentary Tradition to 1974 (as both a graduate and an undergraduate course)
D. A. Pennebaker and Contemporary Documentary
Digital Documentary and the Internet
Documentary Film Workshop (production workshop for seniors and graduate students)
Errol Morris and Contemporary Documentary
Film Comedy
Film Noir and American Cinema of the 1940s
Film and Popular Culture, 1890-1920 (graduate)
Film Theory and Aesthetics: Munsterberg to Mulvey
History of American Cinema, 1895 to the present (undergraduate survey course, 20 class meetings of 4 hours each)
The Hollywood Novel/The Hollywood Film
Introduction to Film Studies
Problems in Film History
Race and Representation in American Cinema
Seminar in Historiography (Ph.D. core course)
The “Silent” Screen:  International Cinema to 1929
World Documentary: Global Nonfiction after the Cold War