Description:
This volume brings together original research on religion and cinema. Contributors look beyond the film text, content, or aesthetics, instead concentrating on the cinema-related actions, strategies, and policies developed by the Catholic Church and Catholic organizations in order to influence cinema.
Review Quotes:
"Finally, an investigation that demonstrates the close negotiation between film policies and filmmakers, power and art, ethics and aesthetics, as influenced by a variety of Catholic- inspired initiatives. This is a much-needed intervention into the study of film and culture alike, particularly essential in a day and age when the scrutiny of the power yielded by Catholic institutions is ever more pressing." -- Ernest Mathijs, University of British Columbia, Canada
"This is a timely book providing well-researched case studies about the historical influence of religious organizations (in this case the Catholic Church) in the production, distribution, exhibition and consumption of films, from policies and leaders to censorship and audiences. A required text for cinema and media students and scholars interested in a comprehensive analysis of a relevant but under-researched topic. -- Jose-Carlos Lozano, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
"The strength of Moralizing Cinema lies in the forays into new areas and, not least, in the rich detail of its empirical case studies." --Maaret Koskinen, Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 40(4)
"Taken together, this anthology adds considerable depth and complexitiy to the historiography of cinema as a cultural form and inspires contintued study into the networks and linkages between different religious authorities and film institutions." --Ira Wagman, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television