Authorship in film has been a persistent theme in the field of cinema studies. This volume revitalizes the question of authorship by connecting it to larger issues of identity - in film, in the marketplace, in society, in culture. Essays range from the auteur theory and Casablanca to Oscar Micheaux, from the American avant-garde to community video, all illuminating how authorship is a complex idea with far-reaching implications. This ambitious and wide-ranging book should be of interest to anyone concerned with film studies and the concept of the author.

In this innovative analysis of the interconnections between nation and aesthetics in the United States during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, David A. Gerstner reveals the crucial role of early cinema in consolidating a masculine ideal under American capitalism. Gerstner describes how cinema came to be considered the art form of the New World and how its experimental qualities infused other artistic traditions (many associated with Europe--painting, literature, and even photography) with new life: brash, virile, American life. He argues that early filmmakers were as...

In this innovative analysis of the interconnections between nation and aesthetics in the United States during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, David A. Gerstner reveals the crucial role of early cinema in consolidating a masculine ideal under American capitalism. Gerstner describes how cinema came to be considered the art form of the New World and how its experimental qualities infused other artistic traditions (many associated with Europe--painting, literature, and even photography) with new life: brash, virile, American life. He argues that early filmmakers were as...