Hollywood Froze Out the Founding Mother of Cinema
French filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché was the first female film director, and renowned as an innovator in the field. Then she moved to Hollywood.
Media Representation and Interracial Couples
Recent years have seen increases in both interracial adolescent romances and portrayals of young interracial relationships. What's the connection?
Socialist Sci-Fi Reimagined the Future
The 1960 East German film The Silent Star provided a significant cautionary tale for the Cold War era.
The Transgressive Subtext of Teen Surf Movies
Surf movies of the 1950s and 1960s only seemed squeaky-clean. Just beneath the surface was rebellion, rule-bending, and an embrace of the "other."
William Faulkner Goes to Hollywood
The curious, forgotten connection between William Faulkner and Charles de Gaulle.
William Goldman and the Mystery of Screenwriting
Authorship of Hollywood screenplays is often a complicated matter. But William Goldman was truly a writer in Hollywood.
100 Years of Fox News
When it began as Fox-Movietone News, the company was known for appealing to viewer's tastes by leaving out upsetting news, including the rise of fascism.
The “Queer Innocence” of the Brady Bunch
The squeaky-clean Brady Bunch family symbolized the avoidance of the sexual revolution, feminism, and other social forces that were coming to the fore.
Did A Star is Born Make Judy Garland a Gay Icon?
One scholar argues that Judy Garland's role in A Star is Born was so pivotal because it involved both gender impersonation and “racial drag."