In Hollywood's Embassies, a history that stretches from Buenos Aires and Tokyo to Johannesburg and Cairo, Ross Melnick considers these movie houses as cultural embassies. He examines how the exhibition of Hollywood films became a constant flow of political and consumerist messaging, selling American ideas, products, and power, especially during fractious eras. Melnick demonstrates that while Hollywood's marketing of luxury and consumption often struck a chord with local audiences, it was also frequently tone-deaf to new social, cultural, racial, and political movements. He argues that the story of Hollywood's global cinemas is not a simple narrative of cultural and industrial indoctrination and colonization. Instead, it is one of negotiation, booms and busts, successes and failures, adoptions and rejections, and a precursor to later conflicts over the spread of American consumer culture. A truly global account, Hollywood's Embassies shows how the entanglement of worldwide movie theaters with American empire offers a new way of understanding film history and the history of U.S. soft power.
Produced by Nat Freeman, Lance Morgan, & Michael Kowaleski.
Theme: "I Love All My Friends," an unreleased demo by Fragile Gang.
SKYLIT: Jessica P. Pryde, ”BLACK LOVE MATTERS”
SKYLIT: Scott Meslow, ”FROM HOLLYWOOD WITH LOVE”
SKYLIT: Kai Harris, ”WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW”
SKYLIT: Sasha Fletcher, ”BE HERE TO LOVE ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD”
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Jami Attenberg, ”I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU” w/ Patricia Lockwood
THE HANDSELL: Harriet’s Bookshop w/ Jeannine Cook
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Akwaeke Emezi
SKYLIT: Cara Blue Adams, ”YOU NEVER GET IT BACK”
SKYLIT: Tim James, ”ASTRONOMICAL”
SKYLIT: Wajahat Ali, ”GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM”
SKYLIT: Duncan Birmingham, ”THE CULT IN MY GARAGE”
SKYLIT: Melissa Anderson, ”INLAND EMPIRE” & Erika Balsom, ”TEN SKIES”
SKYLIT: Ellinor Richey, ”JUNKWRAITH”
SKYLIT: Darieck Scott, ”KEEPING IT UNREAL” w/ Ramzi Fawaz
SKYLIT: Tabitha Lasley, ”SEA STATE”
SKYLIT: PEN Emerging Voices w/ Joanna Hong & Jenise Miller
SKYLIT: Brooks Hefner, ”BLACK PULP”
HANDSELL: Christine Bollow, ABA
SKYLIT: Mahogany L. Browne, ”VINYL MOON”
SKYLIT: George Saunders w/ Alena Saunders
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