Automobilities in Walter Mosley’s Detective Fiction on Film
Judith A. Nicholson
Judith Nicholson examines the importance of depictions of African American automobilities to Walter Mosley’s detective fiction and its screen adaptations.
Los Angeles
From a Derelict Mansion to the Malibu Coast: Film Noir, Urban Spaces, and the Articulation of Gender Identity in Los Angeles
Junyi Zhou
In this Student Voices essay, Vassar student Junyi Zhou considers the representation of gender relations in post-war film noir set in Los Angeles.
The Ed Ruscha Streets of Los Angeles Project
Mark Shiel
A collaborative team at the Getty Research Institute has been working to digitize and analyze the influential Los Angeles street photography of Ed Ruscha. Mark Shiel provides an overview of the project and discusses parallels between Ruscha’s photographs and LA cinema in the 1960s.
Gentrification and the White Spatial Imaginary: Notes from Little Tokyo in Lockdown
Jonathan Jae-an Crisman
COVID-19 has created new challenges for community activism in Los Angeles. Jonathan Jae-an Crisman discusses gains and setbacks for Little Tokyo's anti-gentrification arts activists during the pandemic.
Cinetourism and Urban Development: Student Voices Dossier
Noelle Griffis
Noelle Griffis introduces this issue of Student Voices with a discussion of her Fall 2020 course, Cinema and the City, providing context and an overview of her students' work, as well as links to her course syllabus and assignment. Griffis's course emphasizes the role that urban development has played in racial and economic inequality in the city and the ways these issues have been depicted—or neglected—on screen.
The Mediapolis Q&A: Joshua Glick on Los Angeles Documentary
Alexander Davis
Alexander Davis interviews Joshua Glick about his new book, which rethinks Los Angeles as a center of documentary production
Relocating Mobile Production: Los Angeles & TV’s Spatial Capital Showdown
Myles McNutt
Myles McNutt discusses how Los Angeles has been forced to rethink its approach to competing in a new television landscape characterized by mobile production
Moving Image Archives as Urban Palimpsest
Nicholas Avedisian-Cohen
In this installment of our From the Archives section, Nicholas Avedisian-Cohen explores the history of the Echo Park Film Center and its relationship to the city of Los Angeles, suggesting that we can observe the process of urban change at work through the holdings of film archives.
Edward Soja
Mark Shiel
In this first installment of "Opening the Canon," Mark Shiel reflects on Edward Soja's influence on media studies, urban studies, and their intersections.