Marshaling his broad cinematic and cultural knowledge, editor Jan-Christopher Horak has compiled in Lovers of Cinema a groundbreaking group of articles on this neglected film period. With one exception, all are original to this volume, and many are the first to treat comprehensively such early filmmakers as Mary Ellen Bute, Theodore Huff, and Douglass Crockwell.

Also included in the book is a listing of all American avant-garde films produced in the years before World War II as well as a bibliography of the most relevant criticism, literature, and news accounts.

Jan-Christopher Horak is director of the Munich Film Museum and professor at the Munich Television and Film Academy in Germany. He was previously senior curator of film collections at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, and professor of English and film studies at the University of Rochester.