Roy Grundmann

Associate Professor of Film Studies

Film Studies Program Director

Associate Faculty, American and New England Studies Program (AMNESP)

Contact Information:

Department of Film and Television
Boston University
640 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston MA 02215
(617) 353-6185
roygr@bu.edu

Education

Ph.D., New York University, 1998, Cinema Studies
M.A., New York University, 1992, Cinema Studies

Professional Affiliations:

Contributing Editor, Cineaste Magazine (www.cineaste.com)
Member, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)(www.cmstudies.org)

Research Interests/Areas of Specialization:

I am interested in film and media in various modernist and postmodernist contexts and across a spectrum of modes of production ranging from mainstream narrative cinema and art cinema to avant-garde film and experimental media. My work focuses on the distinctive and intersecting histories of these media forms and their political, cultural, and philosophical implications. I teach and I write on the history of avant-garde film and experimental media, on American cinema history from World War II to the present, on the concept of national cinema and the history of select European cinemas, as well as on film and media theory, cultural studies, and minority representation (for details on teaching, see section on course offerings).

My book, Andy Warhol’s Blow Job (Temple University Press, 2003; 228pp.) takes Warhol's 1964 film of the same title as object and reference point for a discussion of Warhol’s larger body of work, of modernist and postmodernist film theory, and of postwar American history and culture. Closely analyzing various examples from Warhol’s cinema and his pre-Pop and Pop art, the book’s critical project is motivated by an effort to reframe Warhol’s significance for a wide range of debates in film studies and art history and to link Warhol’s work more explicitly to issues of queer theory, gay and lesbian history, and gay male authorship. Using critical discourses on Hollywood aesthetics, mass culture, ethnography, pornography, and documentary representation, the book tracks particularly Warhol’s representation of the James Dean myth through a cross-section of works in order to explore the dynamics of reflexivity and intertextuality in high and low art and to investigate subcultural appropriations of dominant culture.

Because of my interest in aesthetics, intertextuality, and the relation between film and the other arts, I strongly encourage interdisciplinarity in the humanities and, indeed, between the humanities and the natural sciences. I believe that film and media studies must continue its dual approach of theory and criticism, renewing its commitment to theoretical rigor and philosophical complexity, while also remaining invested in its venerable tradition of intellectually informed, sophisticated film criticism that preceded academic film studies and continues to exert its vital influence within and without the academy. My own work seeks to partake in both these directions. I have a continued interest in intervening in academic debates on film and media theory and their relation to culture and society. At the same time, my writings regularly appear in a non-academic film quarterly, Cineaste magazine (cineaste@cineaste.com), for which I served as an Editor for ten years and for which I am now a Contributing Editor.

Recent and Current Projects:

“Michael Haneke’s Cinema of Provocation”
(http://www.bu.edu/haneke)

• Chief Curator of the first comprehensive North American retrospective of the films of Michael Haneke, Boston, October 2007.
• Conference Director of a three-day international interdisciplinary conference on the films of Michael Haneke, Boston, October 25-27
• Editor, Michael Haneke Conference Publication.

“Blackwell Companion to American Cinema.” Five Volumes. Blackwell Publishers., Inc.

• Co-editor (with Cindy Lucia and Art Simon) of a comprehensive history of American Cinema from its beginnings to the present. Four volumes of essays, one volume of historical documents and supplementary materials.

“Matthias Müller: Multimedia Poet”
(http://www.bu.edu/multimediapoet)

• Curator/Conference Director of a two-day international interdisciplinary conference and retrospective, Boston University, Sept. 29-30, 2006
• Editor, Matthias Müller Conference Publication

Publications:

• Andy Warhol's Blow Job. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003. 228pp. 40 images.
• “Auteur de Force: “Michael Haneke’s Cinema of Glaciation.” Cineaste Vol. 33, no. 2 (Spring 2007), 3—9.
• “Populist Motifs in John Ford’s Films.” John Ford, Filmmaker: Essays on his Life and Work. Kevin Stoehr ed. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. (Forthcoming 2007).
• “Old Europe Shows New Media Art” Afterimage, Vol. 34, nos. 1-2 Special Issue on Media Arts Activism. (Fall 2006), pp. 3-4.
• Response to Letter to the Editor: “Brokeback Mountain: Socially Conscious Filmmaking Or Bad Art?” Cineaste Vol. 31, no. 3 (Fall, 2006), 80-81.
• “Brokeback Mountain” Cineaste Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 65-67.
• “Queer Media Pedagogy: A Roundtable Discussion,” Terri Ginsberg ed. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Vol. 12, no. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 117-134. Written Contrib. To Roundtable Discussion.
• “Gay-Themed Films of the German Silent Era.” Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 4 (Winter 2005), pp. 72-75
• “Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film,” Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 3 (Fall 2005), 48-50.
• “Too Darn Hot: Kinsey and the Culture Wars.” Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 4—10.
• “Sex, Science, and the Biopic: An Interview with Bill Condon.” Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 11.
• “Masters of Ceremony: Media Demonstration as Performance in Three Instances of Expanded Cinema.” The Velvet Light Trap no. 54 (Fall 2004), pp. 48—64.
• “Los Angeles Plays Itself.” Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 1 (Winter 2004), p. 80.
• “White Man’s Burden: Eminem’s Movie Debut in 8 Mile,”in White Noise: The Eminem Collection. Hilton Als and Darryl F. Turner eds. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003. PP. 111—128. Reprinted from Cineaste 28:1 (Spring 2003).
• “Queer Theory / Queer Studies: Ein enzyklopädischer Eintrag.” Medienwissenschaft / Hamburg: Berichte und Papiere (on line). No. 52, (December 2003). http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/Medien/berichte/arbeiten/0052_03.html
  German Language Encyclopedia entry on Queer Theory
• “Drittes Kino: (I) Programmatik; (II) Geschichte; (III) Postkolonialismus.” Lexikon der Filmbegriffe des Bender Verlages (on line). Hans J. Wulff und Theo Bender eds. Mainz: Theo Bender Verlag, 2003. German Language Encyclopedia entry on Third Cinema.
• “Dual Screen Projection” Lexikon derFilmbegriffe des Bender Verlages (on line).
  Hans J. Wulff und Theo Bender eds. Mainz: Theo Bender Verlag, 2003.German
  Language Encyclopedia Entry on Dual Screen Projection.
• with Cynthia Rockwell, “Truth is not Subjective: An Interview with Errol Morris.” Cineaste Vol. 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000), pp. 4-9.
• “Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from their Beginnings to Stonewall.” Cineaste Vol. 23, no. 2 (Spring 1998), pp. 56-58.
• “Plight of the Crash Fest Mummies: David Cronenberg's Crash.” Cineaste Vol. 22, no. 4 (Fall 1997), pp. 24—27.
• “Montreal’s Politique des Auteurs.” Cineaste Vol. 22, no. 3, (Summer1996), pp. 59-61.
• “Bike Boys, Drag Queens, and Superstars.” Cineaste Vol. 22, no. 3 (Summer 1996), p. 54.
• with Cynthia Lucia, “Between Ethics and Politics: An Interview with Tim Robbins.” Cineaste Vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 4-9.
• “How Clean Was My Valley: Todd Haynes's Safe.” Cineaste Vol. 21, no. 4 (Fall 1995), pp. 22—25.
• “Black Nationhood and the Rest in the West: An Interview with Isaac Julien.” Cineaste Vol. 21, no. 1-2 (Winter/Spring 1995), pp. 28-31.
• with Peter Sacks, “Philadelphia.” Cineaste Vol. 20, no. 3, (Fall 1994), pp. 51-54.
• “Identity Politics at Face Value: An Interview with Scott McGehee and David Siegel.” Cineaste Vol. 20, no. 3 (Fall 1994), pp. 24-26.
• “Beyond Certainty: New Agendas in Left Film Criticism,” in Screening Cultural Studies. Special Issue of Continuum, 7:2, March 1994. Toby Miller and Tom O’Regan eds., pp. 290-307.
• “Where Is This Place Called Home? An Interview with Srinivas Krishna.” Cinemaya no. 23 (Spring 1994), pp. 22-27.
• “The Fantasies We Live By: Bad Boys in Swoon and The Living End.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 4 (Fall 1993), pp. 25—29.
• with Cynthia Lucia, “Acting, Activism and Hollywood Politics: An Interview with Susan Sarandon.” Cineaste Vol. 20, no. 1 (Winter 1993), pp. 5-11.
• “New Agendas in Black Filmmaking: An Interview with Marlon Riggs.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 2-3 (Summer/Fall 1992), pp. 52-54.
• “Encouraging the Experimental: An Interview with Jim Hubbard.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 1992), pp. 51.
• “The New Festival: An Interview with Jeff Lunger.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 1992), pp. 52.
• “Politics, Esthetics, Sex: Queer Films and Their Festivals.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 1, (Winter 1992), pp. 50-52, 62.
• with Cynthia Lucia, “Gays, Women and an Abstinent Hero: The Sexual Politics of JFK.” Cineaste Vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 1992), pp. 20-22.
• “Hollywood Sets the Terms of the Debate.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 4 (Fall 1991), pp. 35-36.
• “History and the Gay Viewfinder: An Interview with Derek Jarman.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 4 (Fall 1991), pp. 24-27.
• with Judith Shulevitz, “Minorities and the Majority: An Interview with Ulrike Ottinger.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 3 (Summer 1991), pp. 40-41; 16.
• “The Nasty Girl.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 2 (Spring 1990), pp. 49-51.
  
• “Film and the German Left in the Weimar Republic: From Caligari to Kuhle Wampe.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 2 (Spring 1990), pp. 59-60.
• “Longtime Companion.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 47-49.
• “Looking for Langston.” Cineaste Vol. 18, no. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 27-28.
• with Frank Amann et. al., “A Written Interview with Emile de Antonio,”in Der Amerikanische Dokumentarfilm der 60er Jahre. Christine N. Brinckmann and Mo Beyerle eds. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag/ZENAF, 1990, pp. 374-383.

Course Offerings:

American Cinema History:

• “American Masterworks”
  Intensive graduate survey course (5hrs/week) on American cinema history
• “The Hollywood Blacklist”
  HUAC in Hollywood, 1930s-1950s, and historical ramifications 1950s-present
• “Gender and the Modern Horror Film”
  The American horror film, 1968-present through theories of gender and sexuality
• “African-American Representation”
  Comparative survey, Hollywood Independent Film, Television
• “American Film in the Sixties”
  Overview of stratification of U.S. media landscape, 1960-1969
• “The Hollywood Blockbuster: Cultural Studies, Film Theory, Cinephilia”
  Select approaches to the Cinema of Spectacle, 1970s to the Present

National Cinemas/International Auteurs:

• “The Concept of National Cinema”
  Comparative histories, paradigms, methods
• “The French New Wave”
  Historical Survey (French cinephilia, short films, 1959-1962, epigones, legacy)
• “The New German Cinema, 1962-1982”
  Survey of films, directors and approaches (national cinema, tv, authorship, history)
• “Comparative Directors: Bresson, Haneke, Dumont, Dardenne Brothers”
  Comparative approaches (film theory, authorship, national contexts)
• “Comparative Directors: Greenaway, von Trier, Jeunet”
  Comparative approaches (film theory, authorship, national contexts)
• "Michael Haneke: Multiple Critical Perspectives"
  Film and TV in Nat./Intl. Contexts, Film Theory and Philosophy, Spectatorship

Avant-garde and Experimental Cinema:

• “History of Avant-garde: Film and Experimental Media: A Comprehensive Four Semester Curriculum”
  • Part 1: Intl. modernist avant-garde movements between the two world wars
  • Part 2: American avant-garde cinema from Maya Deren to Andy Warhol
  • Part 3: Media/movements ‘60s-‘80s (structuralism, video, third cinema, feminism)
  • Part 4: Cross-section of recent/contemporary film, video, DV, installation art (incl. identity politics, postcolonial media, globalization, cinephilia, new lyricism)

Film and Media Theory, Cultural Studies, LGBT Representation:

• “Film and Media Theory”
  Introductory survey to major film theories
• “The City in Film and Media”
  City representations in photography, literature, and avant-garde and narrative film
• “LGBT Representation”
  Comparative historical survey of Hollywood, art cinema, recent global examples
• “Independent Queer-Authored Representation”
  Cross-section of recent queer literature, media, and art, Queer Theory