Tod Browning’s Freaks
Freaks asked audiences to think about the exploitative display of human difference while also demonstrating that the sideshow was a locus of community.
The Legacy of Bruce Lee’s Sex Life
Lee’s untimely death in 1973 sparked an argument between his widow and his girlfriend over his libido that played out publicly in international media.
The Geographical Misdirection of Cold War B-Movies
Some American Cold War films meant to allude to the contested theater of Vietnam were filmed in Thailand or the Philippines. Why the positional shenanigans?
Putting the Red in Soviet Color Film
A Soviet alternative to Disney cartoon became a state ideal, but the three-color process behind Silly Symphony cartoons wasn’t easy to perfect.
Surrealism in Cinema, 100 Years On
A century after the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto, the role played by film in the movement is still unfolding.
The War on Bugs
In the 1950s, supersized insects were the villains in a rash of big-screen horror movies. What did those monstrous roaches represent, and how were they vanquished?
Seeing the World Through Missionaries’ Eyes
One way Americans got a look into life in distant parts of the world in the 1930s and ’40s was through films made by Protestant missionary groups.
A Night at the Oscars
All (or at least a lot) of what you need to know before going to this year’s Academy Awards watch party.
Combustible Cinema? The Nitrate Film Issue
The early plastic called celluloid was made of nitrocellulose and camphor. It made for spectacular pictures. It also made for spectacular fires.
The Serpentine Career of Loïe Fuller
Rising from the ranks of touring comedies and Wild West shows, the American dancer dreamed of a future of light, movement, and metamorphosis.