This course provides a historical survey of Hollywood cinema, as well as the history of the material, cultural, political, and technological contexts of film production. Students will come to understand the broad development of the industry and its medium over the past one hundred and thirty years, beginning with early, pre-cinematic moving image technologies and ending with an analysis of the influence of other media and merchandizing on cinema, as well as funding models that shaped how and which films got made. Students will also become familiar with crucial terminology for analyzing and writing about films and related production and marketing materials as a unique and interrelated set of historical primary sources.

The course combines brief lectures, film viewing, presentations on primary sources, and
online discussion groups. Students in the course will also learn about how to write
persuasively and authoritatively about the history of cinema through the various writing
assignments below.