NEW CINEMA HISTORY – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN THE STUDY OF FILMS

Abstract

This paper introduces an approach of “New cinema history” which examines cinema as a commercial institution and a site of cultural and social exchange. This approach reflects the shift of focusing from the studies of filmmaking process  such us text, production, artistry, and technique of moving images to the studies of film distribution, circulation and consumption, the social history of the audience, and social experience of cinema-going. It also means that instead of a researcher who must be educated in a professional school in cinema and film analysis skills, the new film historians should have diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds such as economics, sociology, geography, history, culture, urban, architecture, media, cinema. This paper also discusses the importance and suggestions for the study of the “new cinema history” of Vietnamese cinema.