Projecting America 1958

The Brussels World’s Fair was perhaps the most important propaganda event to be staged for European allies in the Eisenhower years; his administration viewed culture as a weapon in the battle against communism. This book examines the critical role of film in the information war waged against the Soviets in the American pavilion at the fair. The administration sought to create a visual rendition of America that was arresting and inspirational; film was used as a method of political persuasion.

This book examines the role that the American Film Institute (AFI) had in supporting experimental and independent cinema at a key moment of change in the history of American film. Weaving a rich historical narrative, Ramirez argues that the Cold War struggle for cultural supremacy motivated the creation of the federally-funded AFI. Exploring the intersection of business interests and political objectives, Ramirez demonstrates how the AFI’s approach to experimental and independent cinema was marked by an interest in promoting innovative aesthetics and protecting the creative freedom of filmmakers but lacked the attention to distribution and exhibition that would strengthen the viability of experimental and independent filmmaking as professional practices. Scholars of film, history, and American studies will find this work particularly useful.

Documentary filmmakers have been making films about music for a half-century. American Music Documentary looks at five key films to begin to imagine how we might produce, edit, and watch films from an ethnomusicological point of view. Reconsidering Albert and David Maysles’s Gimme Shelter, Jill Godmilow’s Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman, Shirley Clarke’s Ornette: Made in America, D.A. Pennebaker’s and Chris Hegedus’s Depeche Mode: 101, and Jem Cohen’s and Fugazi’s Instrument, Harbert lays the foundations for the study and practice of “ciné-ethnomusicology.” Interviews with directors and rich analysis from the disciplinary perspectives of film studies and ethnomusicology make this book a critical companion to some of the most celebrated music documentaries of the twentieth century.

After World War II, museum and gallery exhibitions, industrial and trade fairs, biennials, triennials, festivals and world's fairs increasingly came to be used as locations for the exercise of "soft power," for displays of cultural diplomacy between nations and as spaces for addressing areas of social and political contestation. Exhibitions Beyond Boundaries opens with a substantial introduction to the key debates, followed by case studies that advance the field of exhibition histories both geographically and methodologically, focusing on postwar transnational exchange and the wider networks engendered through exhibitions. Chapters trace relations across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, and the United States of America, drawing on a range of approaches and perspectives, principally from art and design history but also from social, economic and political history, and museum studies. Featured case studies include the presentation of African-American Art at FESMAN '66 and FESTAC '77, the US's 1961 Small Industries Exhibition in Colombo, Israel's early appearances at the Venice Biennale, the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, and Hong Kong's Pavilion at Expo 70 in Tokyo.

This work demonstrates that not everything that Disney touched turned to gold. In its first 100 years, the company had major successes that transformed filmmaking and culture, but it also had its share of unfinished projects, unmet expectations, and box-office misses. Some works failed but nevertheless led to other more stunning and lucrative ones; others shed light on periods when the Disney Company was struggling to establish or re-establish its brand. In addition, many Disney properties, popular in their time but lost to modern audiences, emerge as forgotten gems. By exploring the studio's missteps, this book provides a more complex portrayal of the history of the company than one would gain from a simple recounting of its many hits. With essays by writers from across the globe, it also asserts that what endures or is forgotten varies from person to person, place to place, or generation to generation. What one dismisses, someone else recalls with deep fondness as a magical Disney memory.