Charles Musser

Charles Musser is Professor of American Studies, Theater Studies and Film Studies as well as director of the Yale Summer Film Institute. His books include The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (1990), High–Class Moving Pictures: Lyman H. Howe and the Forgotten Era of Traveling Exhibition, 1880–1920, with Carol Nelson (1991), and Edison Motion Pictures, 1890–1900: An Annotated Filmography (1997). He also co–edited Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African–American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era (2001) with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines. He recently edited a special issue of Film History on "Documentary before Verité" (2006), has published a number of essays on Paul Robeson's film career, and is currently writing a book entitled Truth and Documentary in the Age of George W. Bush. Charlie worked in the film industry for many years: his documentary Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter premiered at the 1982 New York Film Festival and was called one of the year's best documentaries by Carrie Rickey of the Village Voice. This past summer (2010) he screened a cut of a new 65-minute documentary at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas: Plan B: A Conversation with Errol Morris at the Globe Department Store.  He currently teaches a year-long course in filmmaking--Documentary Film Workshop.  His graduate courses concentrate on film historiography, documentary, and American cinema.