Film Studies: 6 Takes on American Screen Acting

We look up at them and to them. We desire them, dream about them. They embody our noblest aspirations, and channel our darkest impulses. They live out our fantasies and expose our vulnerabilities. While we watch, they act.

The movies — not only, but especially in America — have been built on the people who perform in them. We call them stars. But the story of screen acting in American cinema is not only about beauty and glamour. It arcs towards exploration, psychoanalysis, realism and authenticity. This Film Studies series charts the changing fashions and styles in screen acting in the wake of World War Two under the influence of The Method, certainly, but also wider social and political currents.

Every other Wednesday afternoon, from June 11, at 2:00 pm, Professor Harry Killas will introduce a totemic film in the history of screen acting, analyzing the production methods and social assumptions which informed the performances.

The films in this series will get repeat screenings as part of the VIFF Centre’s wider survey of the era, Getting Real: The Arc of American Screen Acting.

Harry Killas is Professor and Assistant Dean in the Film + Screen Arts program at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. His most recent documentary films include Collective Agency about a group of seniors who became photo-artists in late life, and Greek to Me, an autobiographical documentary about his family and ethnic identity. His research/ filmmaking theme areas include education, the arts, and social, political and other histories. As a curator, Killas programmed seven seasons of the series The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia at The Cinematheque.