The Moving Form of Film: Historicising the Medium through Other Media
Edited by Lúcia Nagib (Senior Lecturer in Media Studies), Stefan SolomonThe Moving Form of Film: Historicizing the Medium through Other Media charts the ways in which crossing borders between film & other arts & media can provide an encompassing, inclusive, & non-teleological understanding of film history.
Evolutionary narratives of cinema have traditionally adopted the Second World War as a watershed that separates 'classical' Hollywood films from 'modern' European productions, a scheme that subjects the entire world to the cinematic history of two hegemonic centres. In turn, histories of film as a technological medium have focused on the specificity of cinema as it gradually separated from the other art & medial forms - theatre, dance, fairground spectacle, painting, literature, still photography & other pre-cinematic modes.
Taking an ambitious step forward with relation to these approaches, this book focuses on the fluid quality of the film form by exploring an array of exciting & often neglected artistic expressions worldwide as they compare & interconnect films across temporal, geographical, & cultural borders. By observing the ebb & flow of film's contours within the bounds of other artistic & medial expressions, the chapters aspire to establish a flexible historical platform for the moving form of film, posited, from production to consumption, as a transforming & transformative medium.