How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating the "postindustrial" city? This collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of neoliberalism, urban branding, and accelerated gentrification. Examining a wide range of films from Hollywood blockbusters to indie cinema, it considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the spaces, policies, and politics of US cities from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to Detroit, Oakland, and Baltimore. The contributors address questions of narrative, genre, and style alongside the urban contexts of production, exhibition, and reception, discussing films including The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Cruising (1980), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), King of New York (1990), Inception (2010), Frances Ha (2012), Fruitvale Station (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Doctor Strange (2016).

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts with which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: Antibes, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Busan, Cairo, Caracas, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Kolkata, Lagos, Los Angeles, Malmo, Manila, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Seoul, Sete, and Shanghai. The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art. Contributors: Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Jinhee Choi, Pei-Sze Chow, Thomas Elsaesser, Malini Guha, Jonathan Haynes, Will Higbee, Igor Krstic, Christian B. Long, Joanna Page, Lawrence Webb.

Location shooting has always been a vital counterpart to soundstage production, and at times, the primary form of Hollywood filmmaking. But until now, the industrial and artistic development of this production practice has been scattered across the margins of larger American film histories. Hollywood on Location is the first comprehensive history of location shooting in the American film industry, showing how this mode of filmmaking changed Hollywood business practices, production strategies, and visual style from the silent era to the present. The contributors explore how location filmmaking supplemented and  later, supplanted production on the studio lots. Drawing on archival research and in-depth case studies, the seven contributors show how location shooting expanded the geography of American film production, from city streets and rural landscapes to far-flung territories overseas, invoking a new set of creative, financial, technical, and logistical challenges. Whereas studio filmmaking sought to recreate nature, location shooting sought to master it, finding new production values and production economies that reshaped Hollywood’s modus operandi. 

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts with which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: Antibes, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Busan, Cairo, Caracas, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Kolkata, Lagos, Los Angeles, Malmo, Manila, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Seoul, Sete, and Shanghai. The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art. Contributors: Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Jinhee Choi, Pei-Sze Chow, Thomas Elsaesser, Malini Guha, Jonathan Haynes, Will Higbee, Igor Krstic, Christian B. Long, Joanna Page, Lawrence Webb.

How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating the "postindustrial" city? This collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of neoliberalism, urban branding, and accelerated gentrification. Examining a wide range of films from Hollywood blockbusters to indie cinema, it considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the spaces, policies, and politics of US cities from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to Detroit, Oakland, and Baltimore. The contributors address questions of narrative, genre, and style alongside the urban contexts of production, exhibition, and reception, discussing films including The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Cruising (1980), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), King of New York (1990), Inception (2010), Frances Ha (2012), Fruitvale Station (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Doctor Strange (2016).

A member of the Class of 1955, Lawrence Webb offers a salute to his alma mater, Hardin-Simmons University. He recalls lessons he learned both in the classroom and in campus life. From President Rupert Richardson's Bee Speech, he learned to look to God in nature. In his first class, the professor urged students to learn to respect people with different opinions and say, "You may be right." He learned from George Hine, the sports publicity director, that he was probably too pious for his own good. In a class, Dr. Hoyt Ford taught him that he didn't need to have all the answers in every situation. He found lifelong friendship with classmates John Campbell and Jerry Reynolds who returned as professors. From Euell Porter, he learned to sing and love rich choral music. Dean W. Truett Walton was a mentor on campus and for decades after the author graduated. He learned to appreciate English literature from W. D. Bond, who also tried to teach him bait-casting. Back in Abilene from his first year in seminary, he had his first experience performing weddings, at the invitation of fellow HSUers Maxine Reid and Fred Blalock. In the literal meaning of alma mater (fostering parent), he felt many professors and staffers filled that role. Working in the kitchen of "The Beanery," he learned lessons in work and life from Jeff Lott, the janitor. His freshman English professor, Dr. Robert Burrows, encouraged him in his writing interests which he combined throughout his career along with being a minister and teacher. In 2011, 60 years later, he visited with Dr. Burrows and his wife in Wisconsin.

Christmas is a most wonderful time as we think once again on the season's true focus: the birth of the Baby whose life, death, and resurrection have reshaped history. The reflections in this collection found their inspiration in a variety of sources: * Songs of the season, old and new, sacred and secular, from Canada, Britain, and the U. S., including two new carols by the author * A Christmas quote from "Hamlet" * Soldiers who stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day * John Grisham's seriocomic novel about a man who tries to skip Christmas * Grumblings of a grade school boy who is forced to take a bath * Rheta Grimsley Johnson's newspaper column comparing Christmas with marriage * A Holiday visit to a bombed-out British cathedral * A painting in a London church basement * A three-year-old's first part in a pageant * A family Christmas letter telling about the young husband's bout with cancer * Classic Christmas stories: Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," Henry Van Dyke's "The Story of the Other Wise Man," and O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" * A play about men who remember Christmas while they are prisoners of terrorists * A few personal memories from the author's childhood, youth, and adult years *The title essay is taken from the plainest of tree decorations--a clear plastic disc with these words: "Once for a shining hour, heaven touched the earth." The book is written "with the prayer that the readings will provide food for your thoughts -- some of which you may need to chew on a while -- and that they will enrich your Christmas."

All sorts of memories come flooding in at Christmas. Each person's memories are unique, but Lawrence Webb believes a reservoir of common experience enables readers to identify with Christmases others have known. Memories in this book are culled from more than seventy seasons. "Some sweet and wonderful. Some romantic. Some funny. One or two are sad. Some, I hope, are reminders of the love Christ expressed in coming into the world." These memories are family-related: the large family of the author's childhood in rural West Texas as well as the smaller family with his wife and their two sons. Geographic settings vary from New York's snowbound Hudson River Valley and snowless Central Florida to Christmas Eve in Westminster Abbey and ordinary life in small-town South Carolina.

Location shooting has always been a vital counterpart to soundstage production, and at times, the primary form of Hollywood filmmaking. But until now, the industrial and artistic development of this production practice has been scattered across the margins of larger American film histories. Hollywood on Location is the first comprehensive history of location shooting in the American film industry, showing how this mode of filmmaking changed Hollywood business practices, production strategies, and visual style from the silent era to the present. The contributors explore how location filmmaking supplemented and later, supplanted production on the studio lots. Drawing on archival research and in-depth case studies, the seven contributors show how location shooting expanded the geography of American film production, from city streets and rural landscapes to far-flung territories overseas, invoking a new set of creative, financial, technical, and logistical challenges. Whereas studio filmmaking sought to recreate nature, location shooting sought to master it, finding new production values and production economies that reshaped Hollywood's modus operandi.