History’s Most Notorious True Crime Story
How New York City's tabloids sensationalized the murder case that inspired the classic film noir Double Indemnity.
What Smoke Signals Means 20 Years Later
This groundbreaking film was the first movie to be written, directed, co-produced, and acted by Native Americans.
Hollywood’s Asian American Heroes
Asian American detectives played by actors Anna May Wong and Keye Luke had a minor but notable place in 1930s and 40s Hollywood.
The Last Silent Film Star
The silent film star once known as Baby Peggy reminisces about how, decades before #TimesUp, children and women were exploited by Hollywood.
Why Adults Love Comic Books
There's more to comic books than bright colors, gratiutious violence, and whimsy. Comics tells stories that are deeply significant to their readers.
American Film’s Disappearing Lesbians
In the 1990s, lesbian characters were repeatedly transformed into "close friends" in film adaptions of LGBTQ-themed books.
The Magic Lantern Shows that Influenced Modern Horror
Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century audiences were delighted and horrified by these spectral apparitions conjured in dark rooms.
My Summer of Watching Little Women
What the author learned from her mother, a feminist academic doing a research project on film adaptations of Little Women.
How Rotten Tomatoes Changed the Film Industry
In 2008, a panel of film critics gathered to talk about the future of film reviewing as a profession in the age of the internet.
Black Panther and Double-Consciousness
Double identity, present in both Marvel's Black Panther and in the critical race theory of double-consciousness, enables black American viewers to see their two identities played out on screen.