Travel back in time with The American Magic Lantern Theater, and experience the boisterous fun of an 1890s magic-lantern show—the kind of show that led to moving pictures.

In this panel discussion, Nancy Mowll Mathews, Howard Besser, and Elizabeth Hutchinson, will address issues raised by Moving Pictures: How might the exhibition’s reconsideration of the dynamics between fine art and film, high and low culture affect the disciplines of art history, cinema studies, and cultural history?

Focusing on the visual in moving image culture, this panel discussion will explore relationships among art, theory, film, science, popular culture, and technology.

Charles Musser, Professor of American Studies and Film Studies, Yale University, will explore controversies surrounding American versus French cinema that emerged as early as 1896, when the Lumière Cinématographe arrived in the United States and Edison's Vitascope made its debut.

By Nancy Mowll Mathews, curator of the exhibition and Eugénie Prendergast Senior Curator of 19th and 20th Century Art, Williams College Museum of Art.

The term “golden hour” denotes the ephemeral moment of perfect cinematic twilight. From stereoscopes to soundtracks, many of the contemporary artists in this exhibition draw upon early film techniques to imagine new possibilities for the moving picture.