# David E. James ( b. 1945 ) ## Description American film historian and theorist, professor of Critical Studies at USC's School of Cinematic Arts; author of *Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties* (1989), a foundational account of the relation between the American avant-garde and the film industry, and *The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles* (2005). ## Key Tags #theorist #critic #academic #film-historiography ## Essential Works - *Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties*. Princeton University Press, 1989. - foundational history situating 1960s American avant-garde film against industrial cinema and other media - *The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles*. University of California Press, 2005. - history and geography of L.A.'s "minor cinemas," including underground, ethnic, and industrial-adjacent film practice ## Details Reads the postwar American avant-garde as one of several "minor cinemas" existing in dialogue with — and often against — Hollywood and other institutional film, rather than as a wholly autonomous tradition; *The Most Typical Avant-Garde* extends this into a geography of Los Angeles's marginal film cultures specifically. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Avant Garde Film]] - *Allegories of Cinema* is a core historiographic account of the American postwar avant-garde and its relation to industry ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - University of Southern California - Professor of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography James, David E. *Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties*. Princeton University Press, 1989. James, David E. *The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles*. University of California Press, 2005. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%