
Murray Pomerance is an independent
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
film scholar and author living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and adjunct professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Career
Pomerance was born in 1946 in
Hamilton
Hamilton may refer to:
* Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
* ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
** ''Hamilton'' (al ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
and studied at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
(with
Kenneth Boulding
Kenneth Ewart Boulding (; January 18, 1910 – March 18, 1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher.David LatzkoKenneth E. Boulding Comments at personal.psu.edu. Accessed 24 April 20 ...
and
Theodore Newcomb
Theodore Mead Newcomb (July 24, 1903 – December 28, 1984) was an American social psychologist, professor and author. Newcomb led the Bennington College Study, which looked at the influence of the college experience on social and political belie ...
), the
New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
(with Benjamin Nelson), the
State University of New York at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...
(with
Edgar Z. Friedenberg
Edgar Zodiag Friedenberg (March 18, 1921 – June 1, 2000) was an American scholar of education best known for '' The Vanishing Adolescent'' (1959) and ''Coming of Age in America'' (1965). The latter was a finalist for the 1966 National Book A ...
and
Warren Bennis
Warren Gamaliel Bennis (March 8, 1925 – July 31, 2014) was an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies.[film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...]
, cinematic experience, and
performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
, and has also edited and co-edited more than two dozen anthologies exploring cinema. He contributes regularly to print and online publications, including ''
Film International
''Film International'' is a quarterly academic journal focused on filmmaking, with a companion website, FilmInt, which covers film studies. The journal includes critical, historical, and theoretical essays on film, television, and moving image st ...
'', ''
Senses of Cinema
''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...
'' and FLOW. In addition, Pomerance is editor of the “Techniques of the Moving Image” series at
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Pub ...
and the “Horizons of Cinema” series at
State University of New York Press
The State University of New York Press (more commonly referred to as the SUNY Press) is a university press affiliated with the State University of New York system. The press, which was founded in 1966, is located in Albany, New York and publishe ...
and, with Lester D. Friedman and Adrienne L. McLean respectively, co-editor of both the “Screen Decades” and “Star Decades” series at
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Pub ...
.
His book ''
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
Starts Here'' has been translated into the French as ''Ici Commence
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
''
(tr. Pauline Soulat; Éditions Capricci 2010), and into the German as ''
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
: Betrachtungen zu einem Schauspieler'' (tr. Andrea Rennschmid; Reinhard Weber Verlag 2006).
Pomerance also writes
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
, and is a 1992
O. Henry Award winner. His work has appeared in ''
New Directions'', ''
The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...
'', ''
The Kenyon Review
''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ''T ...
'', ''
The Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
'', ''
Chelsea'', ''
Confrontation
Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cu ...
'', and ''
Descant
A descant, discant, or is any of several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice (''cantus'') above or removed from others. The ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'' states:
A descant ...
''. He is the author, as well, of ''
Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian and American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the ''Madeline'' picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939.
Early li ...
: A Bibliography'' (Heineman, 1993).
He was diagnosed with autism in the spring of 2018.
Pomerance has also been involved in film production, appearing in Brandon Cronenberg's ''Broken Tulips'' (2008), and acting, writing, and composing for
R. Bruce Elder’s ''Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World'' (1985). In the summer of 2009, he appeared on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
in conjunction with a performance of ''
The 39 Steps''. In August 2013, his co-authored commentary (with R. Barton Palmer) appeared on the
Criterion
Criterion (: criteria) may refer to:
General
* Criterion, Oregon, a historic unincorporated community in the United States
* Criterion Place, a proposed skyscraper in West Yorkshire, England
* Criterion Restaurant, in London, England
* Criteri ...
DVD of
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits are ''Birdman of Alcatraz (film), Birdman of Alcatraz'', ''The Manc ...
's ''
Seconds
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...
''.
In October 2017 he appeared on BBC Radio 3's "Free Thinking."
Works published
*''Edge of the Screen'' (Bloomsbury 2024)
*''The Eyes Have It,'' revised edition (SUNY Press 2024)
*''A Silence from Hitchcock'' (SUNY Press 2023)
*''Uncanny Cinema: Agonies of the Viewing Experience'' (Bloomsbury 2022)
*''Color It True: Impressions of Cinema'' (Bloomsbury 2022)
*''A Voyage with Hitchcock'' (State University of New York Press 2021)
*''The Film Cheat: Screen Artifice and Viewing Pleasure'' (Bloomsbury 2020)
*''Virtuoso: Film Performance and the Actor's Magic'' (Bloomsbury 2019)
*''A Dream of
Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
'' (SUNY Press 2019)
*''Cinema, If You Please: The Taste of Memory, the Memory of Taste'' (Edinburgh University Press 2018)
*''Moment of Action: Riddles of Cinematic Performance'' (Rutgers 2016)
*''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (BFI 2016)
*''Marnie'' (BFI 2014)
*''The Eyes Have It: Cinema and the Reality Effect'' (Rutgers 2013)
*''
Alfred Hitchcock's
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
'' (Polity Press 2013)
*''
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...
Red
Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema'' (University of California Press 2011)
*''The Horse Who Drank the Sky: Film Experience Beyond Narrative and Theory'' (Rutgers University Press 2008)
*''
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
Starts Here'' (Rutgers 2005)
*''An Eye for
Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
'' (Rutgers 2004)
Edited
*"The Color of Our Eyes," special issue of ''The New Review of Film and Television Studies,'' February 2017
*''The Last Laugh: Strange Humors of Cinema ''(Wayne State, 2013)
* ''Shining in Shadows: Movie Stars of the 2000s'' (Rutgers 2012)
*''A Family Affair: Cinema Calls Home'' (Wallflower 2008)
*''City That Never Sleeps:
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
and the Filmic Imagination'' (Rutgers 2007)
*''Cinema and Modernity'' (Rutgers 2006)
*''American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations'' (Rutgers 2005)
*''BAD: Infamy, Darkness, Evil, and Slime on Screen'' (State University of New York Press 2004)
*''Enfant Terrible!
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...
in American Film'' (New York University Press 2002)
*''Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls: Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century'' (State University of New York Press 2001)
Co-edited
*''Mervyn Leroy Comes to Town'' (with R. Barton Palmer; Rutgers University Press, 2025)
*''Autism in Film and Television: On the Island'' (with R. Barton Palmer; University of Texas Press, 2022)
*''The Other Hollywood Renaissance'' (with Dominic Lennard, and R. Barton Palmer; Edinburgh University Press, 2020)
*''The Many Cinemas of
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz (; born Manó Kaminer; from 1905 Mihály Kertész; ; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silen ...
'' (with R. Barton Palmer; University of Texas Press, 2018)
*''Close-Up: Great Cinematic Performances'' Vol. 1, America (with Kyle Stevens; Edinburgh University Press, 2017)
*''Close-Up: Great Cinematic Performances'' Vol. 2, International (with Kyle Stevens; Edinburgh University Press, 2017)
*''Hamlet Lives in Hollywood:
John Barrymore
John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly a ...
and the Acting Tradition on Screen'' (with Steven Rybin; Edinburgh University Press 2017)
*''Thinking in the Dark: Cinema, Theory, Practice'' (with R. Barton Palmer; Rutgers University Press 2016)
*''
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...
: Hollywood Master'' (with R. Barton Palmer; Edinburgh University Press 2015)
*''Hollywood's Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema'' (with Daniel Bernardi, and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson; Wayne State 2012)
*''A Little Solitaire:
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits are ''Birdman of Alcatraz (film), Birdman of Alcatraz'', ''The Manc ...
and American Film'' (with R. Barton Palmer; Rutgers University Press 2011)
*''From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...
’s
Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually developed into ...
'' (with Ernest Mathijs; Rodopi 2006)
*''Where the Boys Are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth'' (with Frances Gateward; Wayne State 2005)
*''Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Cinemas of Girlhood'' (with Frances Gateward; Wayne State 2002)
*''Popping Culture'' (with John Sakeris; 7 editions 2003–2012; Boston: Pearson)
*''Closely Watched Brains'' (with John Sakeris; 2 editions 2001–2003; Boston: Pearson)
*''Bang Bang Shoot Shoot! Essays on Guns and Popular Culture'' (with John Sakeris; 2 editions 1999–2000; Simon & Schuster, Pearson)
*''Pictures of a Generation on Hold'' (with John Sakeris; MSWG)
Fiction
*''Grammatical Dreams'' (Green Integer 2020)
*''A King of Infinite Space'' (Oberon Press 2017)
*''The Economist'' (Oberon Press 2014)
*''Tomorrow'' (Oberon Press 2012)
*''Edith Valmaine'' (Oberon Press 2010)
*''Savage Time'' (Oberon Press 2005)
*''Magia d’Amore'' (Sun and Moon 1999)
References
External links
*
Murray Pomeranceand CV at
Academia.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomerance, Murray
1946 births
Living people
Canadian academics
Film theorists
University of Michigan alumni
Writers from Hamilton, Ontario
Academic staff of RMIT University
Academics from Hamilton, Ontario