What if we saw Hollywood as it really was?
What if everything you thought you knew about Hollywood history was fake, or manipulated through a prism so narrow that unwieldy chunks of history simply got left behind?
What if movies from Tinseltown’s golden age — 1917-60 — were subjected to the same rigorous analysis one would apply to, say, zoology or physics?
What uncomfortable truths would emerge about where we’ve been and what lies ahead?
“So much of what we understand in the world is determined by what we see on screen,” notes Wilfrid Laurier University film prof Philippa Gates, who has spent her career re-examining Hollywood’s dysregulated past for intriguing alternate realities.
“If you can get someone to think about a topic and have a different perspective, you’ve accomplished something. By going back and looking at these films, maybe there are lessons to impart.”
This, among other things, is the impetus behind “Classical Hollywood Studies in the 21st Century,” an invitation-only conference Gates co-organized in Waterloo May 10 to 13 that will see 40 film scholars from around the globe laying the groundwork for a Canada-led network to break new ground in film studies and producing a post-conference book of its findings.
The ultra-whiteness of classic sci-fi, the role of a silent female collaborator in the genius of Alfred Hitchcock, black actors as symbolic markers of white degradation, actress Gene Tierney’s mental health issues as a reflection of social roles for women, the way dark ’40s crime thrillers were marketed to women, and the advent of advice culture through Hollywood fan mags of the ’30s to
’50s will all be up for discussion.
“Some of the scholars at our conference will be presenting research that offers new insights and approaches,” notes Gates.
“For example, (Brock University’s) Liz Clarke will be talking about women in World War I films, who unlike women in World War II films — who kept the home fires burning for their husbands — were soldiers, spies, and action heroes ... the Wonder Women of their time.”
Ryan Jay Friedman, from Ohio State University, will examine how musical segments featuring black performers in the 1930s and ’40s were strategically placed in films in a way that made it easy for racist censors to crop them out for marketing in the Deep South.
Gates’ own research, on which she based an upcoming book, examines the evolving image of Chinese-Americans in classic Hollywood films.
“We remember the stereotypes of Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu,” she points out, referencing offensive movie archetypes of the ‘30s and ‘40s.
“But we’ve forgotten the reality that many films, even as early as the 1910s, offered thoughtful and progressive images of Chinese Americans.
“New perspectives can help us uncover a new history of Hollywood film.”
Call it Forgotten History or — with reference to a barely remembered ’70s rock giant — the Three Dog Night Effect.
It’s as if “Hidden Figures” — the Oscar-nominated film about the unpublicized role of AfricanAmericans in the early days of the U.S. space program — is being extrapolated to the whole, lumbering, elephantine movie industry.
“In my teaching and research, I analyze films in their social, historical, political and economic contexts,” notes Gates, who has also written books about Hollywood’s depiction of male and female detectives.
“I then explore how films reflect, manipulate and even sometimes ignore social tensions — the Great Depression, World War II — and how this reveals shifts in social attitudes.”
What does it mean to go back and acknowledge that, why yes, Alfred Hitchcock did have help from a woman and — years before Wonder Woman — there was a raft of hard-boiled female detectives who didn’t take no for an answer.
“No longer is the approach limited to the perspective of white, middle-class, heterosexual males, as was the early research into the field,” notes Gates, highlighting the seismic shift.
“It now includes questions about race, gender and sexuality.
“We have all these new methods and technologies. It gives us a new lens through which to look at old movies.”
In the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp, with societal conventions toppling that, in some cases, have stood inviolate for 50 years, it makes sense that the conventional view of Hollywood as a reflection of society is due for revision.
Given Canada’s status as an underdog purveyor of truth, it’s appropriate that a Laurier film prof — in partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival, local rep houses and international colleagues — pulled the trigger.
“Understanding that popular culture processes our social concerns and attitudes — from gender to racism, war to education — can help us understand what the key tensions and issues are in the 21st century,” notes Gates, whose examination of Chinese immigrants proved that history does, in fact, repeat itself.
“Today, we’re facing immigration from different countries than 100 years ago — but the fears and concerns are the same. Maybe we can learn how to change our response.”