A Special Section: The History of Alternative Film Exhibition and the Social Construction of Taste

4 Introduction JIM LANE FQLM3 ©IIP AITIMI MT A Special Section: The History of Alternative Film Exhibition and the Social Construction of Taste uring the past fifteen years, alternative film theaters in the United States have been closing at an alarming rate, Paradoxically, the number of film archives, film festivals, and media arts centers which exhibit alternative films in the United States is higher than ever before. The managing of "for-profit" film archives, films festivals, and media arts centers, now, more than ever, bear the major responsibility of bringing new, alternative film to America's film-going public. Both profit and non-profit exhibitors of alternative films share the problem of introducing to audiences films that are avant-garde, foreign, or simply different from the mainstream product. American audiences typically have resisted films that appear to stray from the dominant, Hollywood paradigms. As a result, the problems facing Film & History Vol. 24, No's. 3-4, 1 994 alternative film exhibitors have remained constant. However, the manner in which alternative film has been introduced to the American public by film exhibitors has changed. This issue of Film and History will examine two important historical decades in U.S. laternative film exhibition and reception, namely, the 1930s and the 1950s. The essays will attempt to account for the ways in which exhibitors formed various audience constituencies for this type of film. In his essay, "The Beginnings of the Film Society Movement in the U.S.," Ben Davis examines the brief life span of two New York film societies in the early 1930s, the Film Society and the Film Forum. Framing these cine-clubs within the historical backdrop ofAmerica's Great Depression and radical politics, Davis reveals how these cine-clubs differed from their European counterparts. In his essay, "Creating Reel Value: The Establishment of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, 1935-1939," Peter Catapano employs cultural theory to revbeal how the Museum of Modern Art established its world-renowned film department. Catapano evokes how film, taste, and cultural capital were mobilized for the creation of this now-venerable institution. In "Critical and Cultural Reception of the European ARt Film in 1950s America: A Case Study of the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts," I frame the start of one art house in the context of post-war economic exigencies, examining how one movie theater succeeded in creating and sustaining an audience for art and revival film. The articles in this issue highlight the need for further research into a neglected area ofAmerican film history. Moreover, given the solid historical research presented in this issue, the need for a critique of contemporary, cultural, and political circumstances as they relate to alternative film exhibition and audiences in the U.S. appears even more necessary for the survival of a broadened sense of film culture. ...