Basinger

Jeanine Basinger is the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, founder and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, Chair of the Film Studies Department, and a 1996 recipient of Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Her book, Silent Stars, won the National Board of Review’s William K. Everson Prize. She is the author of numerous articles and book reviews in such publications as The New York Times, American Film, Film Quarterly, and Opera News, as well as ten books on film including A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960 Anatomy of a Genre, and Anthony Mann: A Critical Study. Her most recent book, The Star Machine, was published by Knopf in fall of 2007.

Professor Basinger is a trustee of the National Board of Review, a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute, and a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. She served as advisor to Martin Scorsese’s film foundation project, The Story of Movies; co-produced an American Masters episode on Clint Eastwood, and was head consultant on the PBS special “American Cinema: 100 years of Filmmaking” for which she also wrote the companion book. A nationally recognized expert on various aspects of American film she has consulted on numerous film documentaries and projects funded by both NEA and NEH. Professor Basinger was the recipient of the Connecticut Governor’s Award for her contribution to Film and the Arts in November 2006. She was also awarded an honorary degree by the American Film Institute in June of 2006—the first time it was awarded to an academic—for her contribution to film studies and for the number of her students who work in the field.

As curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archive, Basinger is responsible for the care of papers from some of film history’s most significant names, both then and now: Frank Capra, Clint Eastwood, Elia Kazan, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Raoul Walsh, and Jonathan Demme. Her former students include such directors as Miguel Arteta, Paul Weitz, Michael Bay, and Jon Turteltaub; writers Joss Whedon, Steven Schiff, Akiva Goldsman, and Bruce Eric Kaplan; actors Dana Delany, and Brad Whitford; producers Laurence Mark, Paul Schiff, Matt Greenfield, and many more. <>
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<>Professor Basinger spearheaded the planning and fundraising for Wesleyan’s new Center for Film Studies.