The Cinema Intelligence Apparatus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Brennan
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
Film Library ◽  
Gregory Bateson ◽  
Central Case ◽  
Test Film ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter, by Nathaniel Brennan, discusses the efforts of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library to make use of captured enemy motion pictures on behalf of the federal government’s wartime intelligence programs during World War II. While the chapter presents an overview of the film library’s governmental intelligence work, ranging from matters of storage to the challenges of training analysts, the central case study examines the work of British anthropologist Gregory Bateson, whose work at the film library consisted of trying to define an objective approach to the study of culture through cinema and the preparation of a test film that would instruct American soldiers about the peculiarities of the German character. Although Bateson’s plans did not materialize, the efforts of Margaret Mead to adapt Bateson’s anthropological film methodology for the Cold War nonetheless influenced the development of postwar film studies and the analysis of national cinemas.

Tremor, Tick, and Trance: Siegfried Kracauer and Gregory Bateson in the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-172
Author(s):  
Frederic Ponten
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
German Studies ◽  
Film Library ◽  
Gregory Bateson ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
Film And Media Studies

Abstract This article details the brief collaboration between Siegfried Kracauer and Gregory Bateson in the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art during World War II as an intriguing episode in intellectual history, touching on film and media studies, anthropology, and German studies. The article presents the Frankfurt School as part of the 1940s’ memorandum culture and thereby attempts to situate the historiography of critical theory during this formative period within a broader intellectual landscape, that is, in dialogue and competition with several other projects, to analyze the Nazi German enemy, in this case, the Culture and Personality School. The article takes Kracauer’s and Bateson’s analyses of the Nazi movie Hitlerjunge Quex as a case in point and, with the help of institutional and biographical contextualization, develops some of their most important methodical innovations and insights into Nazi German propaganda. In particular, the article points to Kracauer’s concept of hypnosis and relates it to Bateson’s media theory.

“A Treacherous Tightrope”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
Film Distribution ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Psychological Warfare ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Central Case ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Diplomatic Relationship

This chapter, by Alice Lovejoy, chronicles the United States Office of War Information’s plans to distribute forty Hollywood feature films in liberated Europe under the auspices of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force’s Psychological Warfare Division (PWD-SHAEF). From the comparative perspectives of OWI and the Allied countries for which the films were destined (Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Czechoslovakia, its central case study), it examines the economic, ideological, and pragmatic questions that intersected in these films’ selection and distribution, focusing on the tensions caused by OWI’s close relationship with the American film industry. The chapter argues that the case study of these forty films highlights Europe’s fraught political, cultural, and diplomatic relationship with American cinema on the cusp of the Cold War, as well as the complex logics underpinning film distribution in this period.

Sabri, Atta (1912–1988)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Renee Floyd
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
National Museum ◽  
World War ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
Plastic Arts ◽  
Modern Artists

Born in Kirkuk, Iraq, Atta Sabri was among the pioneer generation of Iraqi modern artists with careers peaking in the mid-20th century. He was an active exhibitor and participant in several burgeoning art groups. After being educated and employed as a teacher in Baghdad, Sabri joined many of his peers in studying art abroad, first in Rome at the Accademia di Belle Arti and then, after World War II, in London at Goldsmith College and the Slade School. During the years of the war, Sabri held a job at the Department of Antiquities in Baghdad. After completing his studies, the artists again took up teaching this time at the Baghdadi Institute of Fine Art. Over the course of his career, Sabri became a founding member of the Society of the Friends of Art and a member of the Society of Iraqi Plastic Arts. His exhibition record includes the seminal Industrial and Agricultural Fair in 1931 and the 1950 First Iraqi Art Show in London. Sabri also exhibited extensively at the National Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad and in 1979 the museum held a retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre.

Claims to Fame

2020 ◽  
pp. 159-172
Author(s):  
Özpinar
Keyword(s):  
Women Artists ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
History Writing ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media

Since the day it was inaugurated in 2004, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art has assumed a pivotal role in re–establishing the history of modern and contemporary artistic practices in Turkey. The major all–woman exhibition titled ‘Dream and Reality: Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’, which was opened in late 2011 at Istanbul Modern, constitutes an important case study to prompt deeper exploration into the narrative frameworks within which the art museum reproduces differences. This chapter revisits the institutional and the curatorial discourse of ‘Dream and Reality’ by examining the statements released in the media and in catalogue essays with a view to comprehending the allegedly conflicting notions of gender and feminism on which the exhibition was premised and how differences were articulated against the politics of the state and art history writing. With this reconsideration, the chapter addresses the reverberations of these framings in the art histories of Turkey but also relocates them within the debates of art’s new transnational landscape.

The Films of Bill Morrison

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
Library Of Congress ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Creative Play ◽  
The Subject ◽  
To Receive

Avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison has been making films that combine archival footage and contemporary music for decades, and he has recently begun to receive substantial recognition: he was the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and his 2002 film Decasia was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. This is the first book-length study of Morrison's work, covering the whole of his career. It gathers specialists throughout film studies to explore Morrison's "aesthetics of the archive"-his creative play with archival footage and his focus on the materiality of the medium of film.

scholarly journals „Ani jedna taśma filmowa nie może ulec zniszczeniu”. Osiemdziesiąt lat działalności Międzynarodowej Federacji Archiwów Filmowych

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Agata Łysakowska-Trzoss
Keyword(s):  
Modern Art ◽  
International Federation ◽  
80Th Birthday ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
Film Library ◽  
History Of ◽  
Film Archives ◽  
Art Film ◽  
Structure And Activity ◽  
Printed Sources

W 1938 r. z inicjatywy Henriego Langois’a i Georges’a Franju z Cinémathèque Française, Franka Hensela z R eichsfilmarchiv, Johna Abbotta z Museum of Modern Art Film Library oraz Olwen Vaughan z londyńskiej National Film Library powołano do życia Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film – Międzynarodową Federację Archiwów Filmowych. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie działalności FIAF, która w zeszłym roku obchodziła swoje osiemdziesiąte urodziny. W teście omówiono początki Federacji, jej cele i strukturę oraz działalność (włączając w to organizację warsztatów, kongresów, działalność wydawniczą i koordynowane projekty). Podkreślono także zasługi FIAF w zakresie zabezpieczania dziedzictwa filmowego oraz współpracy między archiwami. W artykule wykorzystano źródła drukowane umieszczone na stronie Federacji (takie jak sprawozdania z posiedzeń, raporty), informacje ze strony internetowej organizacji oraz literaturę dotyczącą historii filmu. “Not a single tape can be destroyed.” Eighty years of operation of the International Federation of Film Archives In 1938, upon the initiative of Henry Langois and Georges Franju from Cinémathèque Française, Frank Hensel from Reichsfilmarchiv, John Abbott from the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, and Olwen Vaughan from the London National Film Library, Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (International Federation of Film Archives) was established. The objective of the article is to present the operation of FIAF, which celebrated its 80th birthday last year. The text presents the early days of the Federation, its goals, structure and activity — including its workshops, congresses, publications, and projects. The achievements of FIAF in terms of protecting the film heritage and fostering cooperation between various archival offices are also discussed. The following sources have been used for the purposes of this paper: printed sources posted on the Federations’ website (such as minutes from meetings and reports), information from the organization’s website, and literature on the history of film.

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