Film

Film

episodes

Interviews with film makers and scholars of film about their new books.

Grizzly Man

June 22, 2026

Grizzly Man

A film by Werner Herzog

Tennyson called nature “red in tooth and claw,” but that warning didn’t keep Timothy Treadwell from living among the grizzlies of Alaska for thirteen …

Shelley Fisher Fishkin, "Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn’s Comrade" (Yale UP, 2025)

June 21, 2026

Jim

Shelley Fisher Fishkin

Mark Twain’s Jim, introduced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), is a shrewd, self‑aware, and enormously admirable enslaved man, one of the firs…

Blue Jasmine

June 15, 2026

Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen has called A Streetcar Named Desire the most well-directed film ever made and its influence on Blue Jasmine (2013) is unmistakable. Both …

Shikha Jhingan, "The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema: Voice, Body, Technology" (Wayne State UP, 2025)

June 9, 2026

The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema

Shikha Jhingan
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

How the sound of the female playback voice impacts Bollywood's cultural, musical, and cinematic environment. Drawing on sound studies and performance…

Allyson Nadia Field, "Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History" (U California Press, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Acts of Love

Allyson Nadia Field
Hosted by Pete Kunze

In 1898, vaudeville actors Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown joyously embraced in a short silent film titled Something Good—Negro Kiss. The first known …

Mackenzi Lee, "Masters of the Universe: Teela: Daughter of Eternos" (Mattel, 2026)

June 1, 2026

Masters of the Universe

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Mackenzi Lee's Masters of the Universe: Teela: Daughter of Eternos (Mattel, 2026) is a young adult tie-in for the Masters of the Universe (2026) film.…

Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence eds., "The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 29, 2026

The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film

Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence eds.
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Since the release of Jordan Peele's Academy Award-winning horror hit Get Out (2017), interest in Black horror films has erupted. This renewed intrigue…

Oscar Winberg, "Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics" (UNC Press, 2025)

May 25, 2026

Archie Bunker for President

Oscar Winberg
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political historian Oscar Winberg has a fascinating new book titled Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics. Thi…

Tony Lee Moral, "A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy" (UP of Kentucky, 2026)

May 22, 2026

A Century of Hitchcock

Tony Lee Moral

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmake…

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán, "Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes" (NYU Press, 2026)

May 20, 2026

Rebooting Inequality

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán
Hosted by Pete Kunze

From Ghostbusters to Will & Grace, One Day at a Time to Jurassic Park, the past decade has seen Hollywood reach a new peak in its obsession with reboo…

Thomas Doherty, "How Film Became History: The Rise of the Archival Documentary in 1930s America" (Columbia UP, 2026)

May 20, 2026

How Film Became History

Thomas Doherty
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

By the 1930s, filmmakers had access to a backlog of footage from nearly forty years of motion pictures, allowing them to create a new kind of film sti…

Sumana Roy, "Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 19, 2026

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal

Sumana Roy
Hosted by Arnab Dutta Roy

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal (Oxford UP, 2024) by Sumana Roy takes an unexpected cast of writers and artists and, in studying their work…

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

May 18, 2026

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

In 1828, a seventeen-year-old boy was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg, holding two letters and unable to say more than a few words. The loca…

Benjamin Dalton, "Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film: Witnessing Plasticity" (Edinburgh UP, 2026)

May 18, 2026

Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film

Benjamin Dalton
Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Our bodies and brains are radically transformable, mutable and plastic. From the neuroplasticity of the brain to the epigenetic malleability of our bo…

Ayşehan Jülide Etem, "Film Diplomacy: A Media History of Turkey-US Relations" (Columbia UP, 2026)

May 16, 2026

Film Diplomacy

Ayşehan Jülide Etem
Hosted by Ailin Zhou

Film Diplomacy: A Media History of Turkey-US Relations (Columbia UP, 2026) offers a powerful new account of how film shaped international relations an…

Wake Up Dead Man (Fr Scott Bailey): The Priest who Helped Hollywood Make a Murder Mystery Movie about the Church

May 15, 2026

Wake Up Dead Man (Fr Scott Bailey)

When Hollywood director Rian Johnson started making Wake Up Dead Man, the new Knives Out mystery (a movie you can watch on Netflix), he needed some he…

Es-pranza Humphrey, "Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen" (Poster House Museum, 2026)

May 12, 2026

Act Black

Es-pranza Humphrey
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

Starting in the 1880s, Black performers, and those invested in telling stories centering Black people, attempted to counter the dehumanizing and harmf…

Patrick Noonan, "Age of Disaffection: The Aesthetic Critique of Politics in 1960s Japan" (Columbia UP, 2025)

May 10, 2026

Age of Disaffection

Patrick Noonan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

The 1960s in Japan have long been understood as a period of radical political engagement. But as political movements from Old Left Communism to New Le…

Frontier Films for America250: On the Western Genre and Beyond with Matthew J. Franck

May 6, 2026

Frontier Films for America250

Matthew J. Franck
Hosted by Ryan Shinkel

Here in Episode 7 of Season 5, I interview Dr. Matthew J. Franck. A senior contributing fellow at Public Discourse, a visiting lecturer in the Departm…

Ana I. Oancea, "Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

May 6, 2026

Dangerous Creations

Ana I. Oancea
Hosted by Gina Stamm

Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France (U Toronto Press, 2025) presents a master narrative of the inventor in fin-de-siècle F…