Film Societies in Germany and Austria 1910-1933

Tracing the Social Life of Cinema
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-17939-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Film Culture in Transition

This study traces the evolution of early film societies in Germany and Austria, from the emergence of mass movie theaters in the 1910s to the turbulent years of the late Weimar Republic. Examining a diverse array of groups, it approaches film societies as formations designed to assimilate and influence a new medium: a project emerging from the world of amateur science before taking new directions into industry, art and politics. Through an interdisciplinary approach—in dialogue with social history, print history and media archaeology—it also transforms our theoretical understanding of what a film society was and how it operated. Far from representing a mere collection of pre-formed cinephiles, film societies were, according to the book’s central argument, productive social formations, which taught people how to nurture their passion for the movies, how to engage with cinema, and how to interact with each other. Ultimately, the study argues that examining film societies can help to reveal the diffuse agency by which generative ideas of cinema take shape.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cowan, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, INTRODUCTION – WHAT WAS A FILM SOCIETY? TOWARDS A NEW ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCREEN COMMUNITIES, CHAPTER 1 – THE KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY: THE BIRTH OF THE FILM SOCIETY FROM THE SPIRIT OF AMATEUR SCIENCE, CHAPTER 2 – THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY: CONCEPTUALIZING THE FILM INDUSTRY IN THE DEUTSCHE KINOTECHNISCHE GESELLSCHAFT, CHAPTER 3 – COMMUNITIES OF LOVE: CINEPHILIC FILM CLUBS, MOVIE MAGAZINES AND THE VIENNESE KINOGEMEINDE, CHAPTER 4 – THE SKEPTICAL COMMUNITY: LEFT-WING FILM SOCIETIES AND THE MAKING OF THE SUSPICIOUS SPECTATOR, AFTERWORD: WHAT’S IN AN ‘IDEA’?, BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Über Autor(innen)

Michael Cowan is Professor of film and media history in the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Iowa. His research, focused on German and European cinema, examines the broader cultural and technological contexts in which film practices emerged and evolved in the early 20th century. His publications have won numerous awards from the Society of Film and Media Studies and the British Association of Film and Television Studies Scholars, as well as the Willy Haas Award (Germany) and the Limina Award (Italy).