Film Societies in Germany and Austria 1910-1933

Tracing the Social Life of Cinema

Michael Cowan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040783405
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism
• Index: History

This study traces the evolution of early film societies in Germany and Austria, from the emergence of mass movie theaters in the 1910s to the turbulent years of the late Weimar Republic. Examining a diverse array of groups, it approaches film societies as formations designed to assimilate and influence a new medium: a project emerging from the world of amateur science before taking new directions into industry, art and politics. Through an interdisciplinary approach—in dialogue with social history, print history and media archaeology—it also transforms our theoretical understanding of what a film society was and how it operated. Far from representing a mere collection of pre-formed cinephiles, film societies were, according to the book's central argument, productive social formations, which taught people how to nurture their passion for the movies, how to engage with cinema, and how to interact with each other. Ultimately, the study argues that examining film societies can help to reveal the diffuse agency by which generative ideas of cinema take shape.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations, Figures, and Tables
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction : What Was a Film Society? Towards a New Archaeology of Screen Communities
• 1. The Knowledge Community : The Birth of the Film Society from the Spirit of Amateur Science
• 2. The Professional Community : Conceptualizing the Film Industry in the Deutsche Kinotechnische Gesellschaft
• 3. Communities of Love : Cinephilic Film Clubs, Movie Magazines and the Viennese Kinogemeinde
• 4. The Skeptical Community : Left-Wing Film Societies and the Making of the Suspicious Spectator
• Afterword: What’s in an ‘Idea’?
• Bibliography
• Index