Explores the Judaic turn in contemporary Israeli filmmaking for what it can tell us about Israel's cultural landscape, as well as about the cinematic medium in general. Judaic-themed Israeli cinema emerges as a crucial example of how film's particular form of 'magic' may be exploited for the purpose of affecting mystical states in the audience.

Explores the Judaic turn in contemporary Israeli filmmaking for what it can tell us about Israel's cultural landscape, as well as about the cinematic medium in general. Judaic-themed Israeli cinema emerges as a crucial example of how film's particular form of 'magic' may be exploited for the purpose of affecting mystical states in the audience.

Explores how Hollywood, an industry based on world-building, was the product of photography, painting, and tourist promotion in the land of sunshine. A more complete story of the American film industry's ascendency in Los Angeles emerges when one considers how the City of Angels cultivated its self-image through pre-cinema narrative art.

Los Angeles was a cinematic city long before the rise of Hollywood. By the dawn of the twentieth century, photography, painting, and tourist promotion in Southern California provided early filmmakers with a template for building a myth-making business and envisioning ideal moviegoers. These art forms positioned California as a land of transformative experiences and catapulted the dusty backwater town of Los Angeles to the largest city on the west coast by 1915. Photography aided the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in opening the region to the rest of nation. Painters gave traditions that...