Films that Work

Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media

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Edited by Vinzenz Hediger and Patrick Vonderau

Type: Studies
Subject: Genre > Documentary
Keywords: documentary, corporations, industrial films
Publishing date: 2009
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Collection: Film Culture in Transition
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 290 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-90-8964-013-0

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Book Presentation:
The history of industrial films – an orphan genre of twentieth-century cinema composed of government-produced and industrially sponsored movies that sought to achieve the goals of their sponsors, rather than the creative artists involved – seems to have left no trace in filmic cultural discourse. At its height the industrial film industry employed thousands, produced several trade journals and festival circuits, engaged with giants of twentieth-century industry like Shell and AT & T, and featured the talents of iconic actors and directors such as Buster Keaton, John Grierson and Alain Resnais. This is the first full-length book, anthology, and annotated bibliography to analyse the industrial film and its remarkable history. Exploring the potential of the industrial film to uncover renewed and unexplored areas of media studies, this remarkable volume brings together renowned scholars such as Rick Prelinger and Thomas Elsaesser in a discussion of the radical potential and new possibilities in considering the history of this unexplored corporate medium.

About the authors:
Patrick Vonderau is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Halle, Germany.
Vinzenz Hediger is professor of cinema studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he directs the Graduate Research Training Program Configurations of film (www.konfigrationen-des-films.de). His publications include Films that Work. Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media (Amsterdam University Press 2009, with Patrick Vonderau) and Essays zur Filmphilosophie (Fink 2015, with Lorenz Engell, Oliver Fahle and Christiane Voss). He is a co-founder of NECS – European Network of Cinema and Media Studies (www.necs.org) and the founding editor of Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft (www.zfmedienwissenschaft.de).

See the publisher website: Amsterdam University Press

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