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3 books match the query 'Johnson, Martin L.'
Commercial Cinema
The History of the Advertising Film in the United StatesMartin L. Johnson
University of Illinois Press, 2026
An advertising film placed promotional content into movies presented as travelogues, educational shorts, industrial films, or scenes of daily life. Business and government, meanwhile, built systems to distribute the films to unsuspecting audiences in schools, churches, civic groups, and universities. Through experimentation, corporations honed sophisticated tools of persuasion that used moving images to influence the public. What they learned reshaped notions of storytelling, technology, and corporate communication while setting the stage for advertising’s symbiotic relationship with television.
Persuasive and expert, Commercial Cinema illuminates the changing fortunes and eventual fate of a film genre in disguise.
Copy/Rights and Early Cinema
Proceedings of the 17th International Domitor ConferenceEdited by Clara Auclair, Ian Christie, Martin L. Johnson, Tami Williams, and Colin Williamson
Lever Press, 2026
Histories of early cinema often focus on technological, social, and aesthetic developments in the medium. But cinema also posed legal challenges throughout the world and continues to do so in the era of digital media and AI. The methods used to establish and defend copyright varied across national contexts and changed over time, shaping how films were circulated and preserved. This edited volume includes essays based on conference papers given at the 17th Domitor conference and includes case studies from a range of national, historical, and cultural contexts.
The essays in this volume address an array of themes, including copyright and early intermediality, piracy and censorship, international distribution, infamy and defamation, and publicity, privacy, and rights to the image. Although these essays center the first decades of cinema, the rights they address continue to resonate today. Since intellectual property law is constantly struggling to stay abreast of technological innovation, this collection has special relevance in a new era of global production and digital technologies that is as momentous as the invention of cinema. Claiming, defining, and defending rights are returned to the spotlight as AI draws upon the past of cinema to shape its future.
The Silent Film Companion
A Recovered and Expanded HistoryLiz Clarke
Rutgers University Press, 2027
Silent film is more than just a cinema of firsts, greats, or classics. It is a cinema of experimentation, ambition, and connection. To watch a silent film is to be transported into another world. The Silent Film Companion seeks to broaden the silent film canon by focusing on compelling non-canonical films from around the globe, providing a fresh perspective and new view of silent cinema. With over fifty films discussed, this volume captures just a sliver of the many delights silent cinema has to offer. It encourages discovery, and rediscovery, of the world of silent cinema: one where the movies were still young, full of possibility, and eager to entice others to take part in a wonderful adventure.
Films covered are from fourteen countries, including Brazil, Mexico, China, Cuba, India, Italy, and Russia, and represent a diversity of subjects. Each chapter provides historical and cultural context to the film, the filmmakers, and a concise analysis of each film. The Silent Film Companion is a must-read for students and fans of silent cinema interested in seeing a side of silent cinema that is rarely explored.