Suchergebnisse

When James F. Nickerson took the reins as the new president of Mankato State College in July 1966, the college was rapidly expanding. It was also a time of social unrest in the United States and in Mankato. "Two Weeks in May," uses historic photos, documents, newspapers, film footage, and recorded interviews, to tell the story of the 1972 Vietnam Was student protests at Mankato State College. Years after the events Nickerson would reminisce on those weeks in May 1972 and conclude, that it was a positive reflection of the American way. It was "democracy in action." -- Back cover. A film made possible by funding provided by Library Services, Minnesota State University, Mankato. With additional funding support from the Department of English at Minnesota State Mankato, the Minnesota State Mankato Foundation, and a grant provided by Prairie Lakes Regional Art Council from funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature. ; https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/university-archives-msu-authors/1423/thumbnail.jpg

Academic, trade, and popular publications commonly assert that 80 percent of motion pictures fail to make a net profit, suggesting also that the main players of the motion picture industry operate in highly volatile market conditions. More importantly, major film companies use this argument to negotiate for better terms with their production and distribution partners, to lobby for stricter copyright protections, and to argue in favor of media conglomeration as a hedge against adverse market conditions. This article disputes these assertions by calculating the full range of income that major motion pictures derive from their primary and secondary markets. It demonstrates that a large share of studio films are ultimately profitable, therefore challenging the arguments that conglomerates make with industry partners and government policy makers. ; (VLID)1566703

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was enacted to ensure that members of actors', directors', and writers' unions were paid residuals when films were reused in television and video. GAO's analysis of motion picture industry data found that, in the three years leading up to the 1998 legislation, at most, about 2 percent of the $1.7 billion in residuals owed went unpaid. The unpaid residuals accrued when production companies did not require distributors to pay residuals upon reuse of the film. In reviewing films made under contract with an actors' union between 1996 and 1998, GAO found 771 films for which residuals had not been paid or obligations assumed. About 87 percent of these films were low-budget productions costing less than $2 million. Because these low-budget films typically generate little in the way of earnings on which residuals are based, the amount of lost residuals is relatively small. Although there has been little impact on the motion picture industry so far, the legislation could affect the profitability of low-budget films. The payment of previously unpaid residuals could increase the production and distribution costs of low-budget films, thereby diminishing the profits. However, even if the legislation caused some low-budget films to become unprofitable, gross revenues in the motion picture industry would fall by less than 2 percent. Although the legislation's impact on the overall motion picture industry may be small, some individuals working on low-budget films could experience substantial losses."

Missionaries played a fundamental role in introducing cinema into the developing world in the early twentieth century. These representatives of the Christian community diligently produced films about far-flung cultures to bolster fundraising for mission efforts around the globe. By the interwar period, a few husband-and-wife teams in Africa were making an array of films about vanishing cultures and the struggle to bring Christianity to indigenous populations. Images Out of Africa brings to light theremarkable expedition of one such team of filmmakers. In 1938, Virginia and Ray Garner, working for the Africa Motion Picture Project, ambitiously began making films in the Belgian Congo and French Cameroons, introducing film into villages for the firsttime. This book features Virginia Garner's recently rediscovered diaries, which highlight the challenges of making films in Africa in the 1930s and include rich descriptions of cross-cultural interactions and micro-negotiations with chiefs, headmen, and villagers

This dissertation is a study of elite efforts to master new technologies of political communication in twentieth- century China. In particular, it focuses on an unlikely pair of topics--cinema and state formation. While motion pictures are not often included in discussions of the media, they too have played a role in the creation and exercise of political power. Numerous choices have been made throughout modern Chinese history concerning the proper role of culture in state affairs. A central argument here is that propaganda activities have shaped mass media production from the moment of China's own "communications revolution" onward. Cinematic technologies --like those of the telegraph, radio, and journalistic press--were instantly appreciated for their powers to enhance political efficacy and shape mass opinion. The relentless pursuit of state prerogatives in each of these areas, partly in response to decades of foreign threat and social crisis, has creating an enduring institutional basis for centralized media management which has survived to the present day

This dissertation examines the role antitrust law played in the collaboration between the motion picture industry and the U.S. government during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. It is largely an industrial analysis that incorporates legal, political, and social histories in its attempt to investigate the impact of antitrust law on the industry during the Great Depression and World War II. Antitrust law in the U.S. was relatively new when the first round of lawsuits were filed against the Hollywood studios in the 1910s, and it played a key role in the development of the business and economic structure of the industry. This study offers a basis for a more complete understanding of how antitrust shaped the motion picture industry by addressing three areas of historical specificity: first, government-industry relations during the Great Depression; second, antitrust law and its on the structure and behavior of the motion picture industry throughout the decade; and, finally, the reasons behind (1) the Department of Justice issuing a consent decree in the middle of the United States v. Paramount; (2) the subsequent creation of the Motion Picture Committee Cooperating for National Defense (later renamed the War Activities Committee-- Motion Picture Industry); and (3) Hollywood's substantial efforts to aid the government in its national defense work for the duration of the war. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the motion picture industry's close relationship with the Roosevelt administration played a key role in its ability to stave off the commencement of government actions against them until the postwar period.

The MPPDA Digital Archives consist of a database of the extant records of the General Correspondence files of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., covering the period from 1922 to 1939. Established in 1922, the MPPDA was the trade association for the motion picture industry, and included all the major companies producing and distributing motion pictures in the United States in its membership. The association was popularly known as the Hays Office, after its first President, Will H. Hays, who remained in office until 1945. Hays was a leading Republican party politician, who resigned from President Warren Harding's Cabinet to take up the MPPDA position. After Hays' retirement, the association was renamed the Motion Picture Association of America. ; Australian Academy of the Humanities; the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences