Theological Crises and the Development of American Cinema

This course is a close study of pivotal films that chart the development of American cinema. Placing them in their socio-historical context, we will analyze production, distribution, censorship, exhibition, and audience reception and the ways in which these issues shaped and were shaped by gender, race, violence, sex(uality) and religious representations. Special attention will be placed on the religious and theological implications of these representations to see what changes have (or have not) taken place in the evolution of American cinema and social consciousness since that (in)famous, racist epic, The Birth of a Nation (1915).