A new book series from BFI Publishing

Cultural Histories of Cinema

A new book series from BFI Publishing.
Series Editors: Lee Grieveson, University College London, and Haidee Wasson, Concordia University

This new series of books will address the fundamental relations between cinema and culture as it became a powerful force in 20th Century life. Authors will explore the network of institutions, representations, and practices that shape cinema, focussing on cultural and political dynamics. Together, the books in the series will show the ways in which cinema has interacted with a range of institutions, social movements, and everyday practices, and will investigate the relations of power that have informed the production, distribution, exhibition, and discursive and material manifestations of moving images throughout the 20th and into the 21st Centuries.
“Cultural histories of cinema” will have a transnational emphasis, entailing comparative as well as nationally focused work.  Films shown in theatres, everyday non-theatrical venues like schools and factories, and the more recent ubiquity of moving images on computer screens and mobile devices will be addressed. The series will feature work that is genuinely cross-disciplinary, drawing on scholarship from, for example, media and cultural studies, history, geography, urban and area studies, architectural and art history. “Cultural histories of cinema” addresses neglected areas of cinema history, explores new materials, and proposes new methodologies for thinking about the social and cultural dynamics of the moving image.


Topics to be addressed in the series might include:

• non-theatrical and didactic forms of cinema culture (including educational cinema, industrial film, amateur film, colonial film, documentary, propaganda)
• the regulation of cinema; intellectual property and copyright
• cultural policy studies
• cinema technologies and networks
• the interplay of local and global film cultures
• the State and cinema, film and politics, the politics of stardom

We welcome all proposals that connect to the goals of the series. Initial enquiries, and proposals, should be sent to Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson, at l.grieveson@ucl.ac.uk, and haidee.wasson@concordia.ca