76-259 Film History

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This introductory course will focus on the history of the American film industry, 1930-1950. Every week, we will screen a film of the most important genres and we will understand these films in relation to multiple contexts: the system of production, popular, critical, and scholarly reception, and social and political events. We will be concerned with understanding how the studio system produced and marketed these works, and how that system changed significantly as result of various events post-WW II. The class will also examine how particular companies produced films of a certain type in terms of such parameters as genre, theme, player, class address, and/or style. Readings will deal with the history of Hollywood, the social and political history of the period, and documents concerning the various films. Students will learn important skills for film history, including reception study, archival research, and contextual analysis. Grades will be based on three papers that require different kinds of historical research, a midterm, and a final.

Prerequisites: 76-239

Offered: Spring 2026, Fall 2025

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