Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Museum Movies
The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Haidee Wasson provides a rich cultural history of cinema's transformation from a passing amusement to an enduring art form by mapping the creation of the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, established in 1935. The first North American film archive and museum, the film library pioneered an expansive moving image network, comprising popular, abstract, animated, American, Canadian, and European films. More than a repository, MoMA circulated these films nationally and internationally, connecting the modern art museum to universities, libraries, women's clubs, unions, archives, and department stores. Under the aegis of the museum, cinema also changed. Like books, paintings, and photographs, films became discrete objects, integral to thinking about art, history, and the politics of modern life.
About the Author:
Haidee Wasson is Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Concordia University, Montreal.
Press Reviews:
"The material presented here is invaluable for its demonstration of just how the MOMA version of film history pushed aside competing narratives."— Film History
"Thoroughly researched and deftly written, this volume fills a void in the history of cinema and also expands and enriches the literature on museum studies."— CHOICE
"An insightful and important book that draws on a range of theoretical frame- works to understand the value of MoMA's Film Library. Wasson, particularly in her conclusion, foregrounds the contemporary significance of this research. In today's world of instant media gratification, Museum Movies offers important insight into all the work that went into making films that had ended their theatrical runs available to scholars and fans."— Moving Image
"Impeccably researched, lucidly argued, Haidee Wasson's book reveals MoMA's significant role in transforming film culture during the interwar years. Producing the first systematic study of the museum's relationship to cinema, she not only contributes original work to the field, but signals new directions in film historiography. This is a full-scale exploration of the rise of film as art and a timely intervention in historical research."—Barbara Klinger, Indiana University
"No other publication has discussed the intellectual roots of a national film archive and its efforts to preserve and exhibit films in such detailed, explicit terms. Wasson makes a significant and unique contribution to the field."—Jan-Christopher Horak, editor of The Moving Image
See the publisher website: University of California Press
> From the same author:
Everyday Movies (2020)
Portable Film Projectors and the Transformation of American Culture
Subject: Technique > Projection
Cinema's Military Industrial Complex (2018)
Dir. Haidee Wasson and Lee Grieveson
Subject: Countries > United States
> On a related topic:
Scratches and Glitches (2021)
Observations on Preserving and Exhibiting Cinema in the Early 21st Century
by Jurij Meden
Subject: Economics
Film Curatorship (2020)
Archives, Museums, and the Digital Marketplace
by Paolo Cherchi Usai, David Francis, Alexander Horwath and Michael Loebenstein
Subject: Economics
The Greatest Films Never Seen (2018)
The Film Archive and the Copyright Smokescreen
Subject: Economics
The Film Museum Practice and Film Historiography (2017)
The Case of the Nederlands Filmmuseum
Subject: Economics
A Thousand Cuts (2016)
The Bizarre Underground World of Collectors and Dealers Who Saved the Movies
by Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph
Subject: Economics
The Past Is a Moving Picture (2014)
Preserving the Twentieth Century on Film
by Janna Jones
Subject: Economics
Back
