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Movies on a Mission
American Protestants and the Foreign Missionary Film, 1906–1956
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Book Presentation:
This investigation into the little-known genre of mission-oriented films uncovers how Protestant missionaries overseas sought to bring back motion picture footage from remote parts of the world. In the broader religious community, mission films aimed to educate congregants back home about efforts to evangelize communities around the world. This book, however, demonstrates the larger impact of mission films on American visual culture. The evolution and development of the genre is highlighted from an early emphasis on “foreign views” in the 1910s, to interwar films providing a more detailed look at how mission stations functioned in far-flung lands, to Cold War productions which at times functioned as veritable propaganda tools parroting anti-communist discourse emanating from the CIA.
About the Author:
Glenn Reynolds is a professor of history at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. He specializes in forgotten cinemas at the margins, especially colonial cinema in Africa, and the global proliferation of missionary films. He lives in Ossining, New York.
Press Reviews:
"…this in-depth research significantly expands our understanding of how religious leaders utilized films in evangelistic and humanitarian work around the globe. This is an outstanding scholarly work that expands the boundaries of what film studies can be."—Terry Lindvall, author of Sanctuary Cinema: The Origins and the Evolution of the Christian Film Industry
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
> From the same author:
Colonial Cinema in Africa (2015)
Origins, Images, Audiences
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