In the first book-length study of this topic, D.W. McKiernan examines the way mainstream commercial cinema represents society's complex relationship with the idea and practice of community in the context of rapidly changing social conditions. Films examined include Ae Fond Kiss, The Idiots and Monsoon Wedding.

Investigates how progressivism structured many aspects of understudied era of cinema.

Films about cities abound. They provide fantasies for those who recognize their city and those for whom the city is a faraway dream or nightmare. How does cinema rework city planners’ hopes and city dwellers’ fears of modern urbanism? Can an analysis of city films answer some of the questions posed in urban studies? What kinds of vision for the future and images of the past do city films offer? What are the changes that city films have undergone? Cities and Cinema puts urban theory and cinema studies in dialogue. The book’s first section analyzes three important genres of city films that follow in historical sequence, each associated with a particular city, moving from the city film of the Weimar Republic to the film noir associated with Los Angeles and the image of Paris in the cinema of the French New Wave. The second section discusses socio-historical themes of urban studies, beginning with the relationship of film industries and individual cities, continuing with the portrayal of war torn and divided cities, and ending with the cinematic expression of utopia and dystopia in urban science fiction. The last section negotiates the question of identity and place in a global world, moving from the portrayal of ghettos and barrios to the city as a setting for gay and lesbian desire, to end with the representation of the global city in transnational cinematic practices. The book suggests that modernity links urbanism and cinema. It accounts for the significant changes that city film has undergone through processes of globalization, during which the city has developed from an icon in national cinema to a privileged site for transnational cinematic practices. It is a key text for students and researchers of film studies, urban studies and cultural studies.

This book examines the role of community filmmaking in society and its connection with issues of cultural diversity, innovation, policy and practice in various places. Deploying a range of examples from Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong, the chapters show that film emerging from outside the mainstream film industries and within community contexts can lead to innovation in terms of both content and processes and a better representation of the cultural diversity of a range of communities and places. The book aims to situate the community filmmaker as the central node in the complex network of relationships between diverse communities, funding bodies, policy and the film industries.

The movie theater has in many ways served as a barometer of the evolution of urban America over the past century. The Community of Cinema explores how the growth and decline of the inner city has been intertwined with the history of the movie theater, how the cinema helped redefine the use of downtowns to include entertainment and socialization, a sense of social place in our society, and the use of spectacle as a part of our daily experience in shopping, eating, and business. This is the first book to examine directly the importance of the movie theater in the creation and growth of the modern American downtown, and its fostering of its own sense of place and community. The Community of Cinema also attempts to bridge the various fields included in the subject of cinema's impact on culture and form, among them film studies, architecture, urban planning, and sociology. In so doing, author James M. Forsher explores in each chapter the ways in which the community of cinema came about, the changes it sparked in the downtown and neighborhood shopping districts, and the sense of community it added to our society as a whole.

For so many around the world, it was in the cinema that they saw their first glimpse of martial arts. Through the films of Lau Kar Leung, among others, they came to appreciate the power and skill of many kung fu techniques. However devotees and practitioners of kung fu and Hung Kuen were aware of the much longer tradition of these arts and in particular, the contribution of both the Lam family and the Lau family. In 2009 the Hong Kong Government endeavoured to identify and recognize forms of intangible cultural heritage. It was this awareness of a vibrant part of Hong Kong history and culture which led to the creation of the Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive, and from this the exhibition, Lingnan Hung Kuen Across the Century: Kung Fu Narratives in Hong Kong Cinema and Community. In the exhibition and this companion book, the histories of the Lam and Lau families are traced, and their role in preserving and creating new stances and forms and bringing Hung Kuen to a wider audience through the medium of film. Using the latest technologies including 3D imagery, the work of past masters has been here brought back to life.

This book brings together the literature of urban sociology and film studies to explore new analytical and theoretical approaches to the relationship between cinema and the city, and to show how these impact on the realities of life in urban societies.