The Film and Media Studies Speakers Series Presents:

The Close-Up: A History

Building on their Public Knowledge Grant from the Mellon Foundation, Joel Burges (UR) and Allison Cooper (Bowdoin) will present a history of the close-up in narrative film and television from 1950 to the present. Grounded in 170 films and television episodes from across that period, they will explore how the close-up across both mediums reveals an often-hidden history of their entanglement. They will examine films such as Sunset Boulevard, Cruising, BlacKkKlansman, and Call Me by Your Name, and series such as The Beulah Show, Starsky & Hutch, Homicide: Life on the Street, War and Remembrance, Queen Sugar, and My Brilliant Friend. In so doing, they will show not only the versatility of the close-up across film and television but also how that technique mediates race and sexuality in US culture across this period. With co-sponsorships from English, VCS, and the Mellon DI Fellowship Program.