Re: FIlm as History, History as Film

James P Castonguay (jamesp@csd.uwm.edu)
Thu, 25 Apr 1996 11:34:42 -0400

There have been some great books published lately concerned with this
topic as part of film studies most recent return to questions of history and
historiography. See, for instance the American Film Institute reader _The
Persistence of History_ (Routledge, 1996) ed. V. Sobchack. At the same
time there seems to be a growing group of historians publishing books
on film.
See Robert Rosenstone's (ed.) _Revisioning History: Film and the
Construction of a New Past_ (Princeton 1995) and his _The Challenge of Film
to Our Idea of History_ (Harvard 1995). You also might want to check out
Pierre Sorlin's work, especially _The Film in History: Restaging the Past_
(Barnes and Noble 1980) and the Society of American Historians Book _Past
Imperfect: History According to the Movies_ (HHolt 1995) eds. T. Mico et al.
Also,I maintain the book section of SCREENsite, the film and tv studies
web site, which is located in the SCREENsite research section at
http://www.sa.ua.edu/tcf/research.htm. There is more information about
(some of) these and other books in the book section under historiography.
SCREENsite has sections for bibliographies, syllabi, reading lists,
information resources, etc. so you might want to explore the site and see
what you can find. Good luck! Jim

Oroginal Post-----

[...]
"We have been asked to give a presentation on the relationship
between film and history as part of an Honors Day Program. We are
interested in learning about any recent scholarship on the subject,
or perhaps a web site that might supplement our research. We are
particularly interested in representations of the '60s and Vietnam,
but would like to hear of any sources, even by Michael Medved!"

Lisa Brown
Brett Schroyer bschroyer@aol.com