The Hollywood Blockbuster: An illustrated talk on Zoom

Hollywood is an industry that has always depended on blockbusters, beginning with The Birth of a Nation and continuing with epics like Gone With the Wind, The Ten Commandments, and The Sound of Music.  But beginning in 1974, two young filmmakers, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, would together change the way the movie industry made movies.  Spielberg's Jaws and Lucas' Star Wars (neither of which was predicted to be a hit) helped launch the careers of the most influential directors of our time.  Whether they were making films together (like Indiana Jones) or separately (E.T., Jurassic Park, The Empire Strikes Back), they introduced the age of the "modern blockbuster," which featured elaborate special effects and thrilling spectacle.  This presentation on Zoom will look at their four decades of filmmaking and discuss how they changed the movies.

Presenter BRIAN ROSE is a professor emeritus at Fordham University, where he taught for 38 years in the Department of Communication and Media Studies. He’s written several books on television history and cultural programming, and conducted more than a hundred Q&A’s with leading directors, actors, and writers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Directors Guild of America. His zoom lectures on film and television history have been presented at the Smithsonian, the 92nd St Y., and at JCCs and libraries throughout the country.

Please note: we are sharing registration for this Zoom program with East Greenbush Library and Mohawk Valley Library System, so space is limited.

If you plan to attend on Zoom, please register with us and you will receive a link in your confirmation email. 

East Greenbush Community Library is hosting a hybrid session, which you can attend in person.  Registration is still required for that; please visit the East Greenbush Community Library's events calendar to register starting January 27.