AMST 2765 - [Cinema and Migration]

(crosslisted) PMA 2565, VISST 2765
(CA-AS)

Fall. Not offered 2016-2017. 4 credits.

S. Haenni.

The invention of cinema in the late 19th century coincided with major waves of migration to and within the United States. Immigrants from Eastern Europe are often said to have “invented” Hollywood; those from Southern Europe were among its first and most eager consumers. By migrating north, many African Americans simultaneously “migrated to the movies.” This course will start by looking at this confluence between migration and cinema: How did European immigrants shape an emerging Hollywood? How did African American migrants negotiate the new medium? How did newly emerging issues of diversity manifest themselves in terms of representation, production, and reception of the filmic image? What in the end does that tell us about the American film industry, its hold on the nation, and its global dominance? Such questions will provide a grounding for the exploration of case studies, and different immigrant groups later in the 20th and 21st centuries.