In creating this video essay, I sought to question the intersection of genre studies and auteur theory. In studying auteur theory, our book mentions Francois Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni as the definition of an auteur, however this places several restrictions upon auteurship. With the exception of Hitchcock, all of the examples given create primarily arthouse films, “serious” films not meant for mainstream audiences. With the inclusion of Hitchcock, all the examples also received near critical acclaim for their work. However, this leaves out those films with a strong creative vision and lasting influence that did not receive critical acclaim or come from genres typically deemed “less worthy”. In this video essay, I argue for the widening of auteurship to include all filmmakers who satisfy those two requirements: a strong creative vision and lasting influence, regardless of genre or critical acclaim. To argue this point, I examine the vision and influence of the films of Terence Fisher, an English director who created incredibly popular horror films in …

Picture your favorite film of all time. You may have your favorite moments, but don’t remember everything about the film. One day, you decide you want to refresh your memory, only to discover the film no longer exists. There is no way to possibly watch it ever again. In this digital age, it is hard to imagine content no longer being available, but this scenario has made thousands of films from the beginning of cinema through the end of the 20th century inaccessible and continues to threaten existing films today. Film is a great cultural artifact, and the loss of its history is an irrecoverable travesty. If there was no intervention, very few films from cinema’s history would be available today, but thankfully the issue of preservation became a pressing matter throughout the 20th century, and although not every film was able to be preserved, a great many of them were saved from oblivion. Film preservation, simply put, is the effort of storing and rescuing decaying film stock for the benefit of future generations. It …