Vivian Carol Sobchack is an American cinema and media theorist and cultural critic.
Sobchack's work on
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
films and
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
of film is perhaps her most recognized. She is a prolific writer and has authored numerous books and articles across a diverse range of subjects; from historiography to
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
to work on
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
,
new media, and film feminism. Her work has been featured in such publications as ''
Film Comment
''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film ...
'' and ''
Camera Obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a aperture, small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) ...
''. She is the author and editor of many books on film and media.
Early life
Sobchack was born Vivian Finsmith in 1940 in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
and grew up in
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
.
Sobchack attended
Barnard College
Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
. While at Barnard, Sobchack often frequented the nearby
Thalia Theater, which offered up a diverse schedule of classic and foreign films. She received her degree in
English Literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
in 1961 with aspirations to write fiction. She published some poetry and began work on a novel, but within two years of graduating moved into a career counseling college grads in search of their first jobs. This led her to a new position, sponsored by
President Johnson's Anti-Poverty Program, counseling troubled high school dropouts towards sustainable careers.
Career
She remained in New York until 1966 when she relocated to Salt Lake City where her husband Thomas J. Sobchack had taken an Assistant Professorship in the English Department at the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
. It was there that Sobchack got her first teaching experience. She took part-time work with the university, teaching film courses—some of the first offered in the early 1970s.
Sobchack stayed with the part-time teaching at the University of Utah while she brought up her son. In Salt Lake City, she also became involved in the establishment of a film club with the intention of bringing hard-to-find films to a city with only one art house theater. The success of this film club eventually led to the inauguration of the
Utah Film Festival (which, as it grew, eventually led to the establishment of the
US Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acte ...
and ultimately, the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
).
Sobchack earned her master's degree in Critical Studies from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
’s Department of Theater Arts/Division of Motion Pictures and Television in 1976. Her Masters Thesis became her first book, ''The Limits of Infinity: The American Science Fiction Film 1950-1975'' (in 1987, it was greatly expanded and retitled ''Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film''). In 1978, she took a position as Visiting Lecturer at the
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...
in Burlington, in the Department of Communication. On her trip back to her family in Utah, she visited the
University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale, where she ultimately decided to pursue her Ph.D. the following year in the Department of Speech Communication, with an emphasis on Philosophy of Language. In 1984, she was awarded her Ph.D. Her dissertation on the phenomenology of film became the basis for her groundbreaking
film theory
Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...
book ''The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience'' (1992).
Sobchack began teaching at the
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...
in 1981. While at Santa Cruz, along with pursuing her own research and writing, she served in a number of administrative capacities including becoming the first Dean of the Arts Division and effectively helping to establish the university's
Film Studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various film theory, theoretical, history of film, historical, and film criticism, critical approaches to film, cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media stud ...
curriculum.
In 1992, she moved to the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
as a professor in the Critical Studies area of the
UCLA Department of Film Television, and Digital Media and Associate Dean of the
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...
.
She retired from administration and currently teaches classes in Visual
Phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
, Contemporary Film Theory,
Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
, and
Cultural Studies
Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
.
The
Society for Cinema and Media Studies The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies) is an organization of professors and scholars. Its home office is at the University of Oklahoma, but it has members throughout the world.
SCMS holds an annual confer ...
awarded Sobchack the 2005 Distinguished Service Award and the 2012 Distinguished Career Achievement Award. She also won the 1995
Pilgrim Career Award for science fiction scholarship from the
Science Fiction Research Association
The Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), founded in 1970, is the oldest, non-profit professional organization committed to encouraging, facilitating, and rewarding the study of science fiction and fantasy literature, film, and other media. ...
. She has served as a juror on the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
Awards Motion Picture Committee five times since 2000. She is on numerous editorial and advisory boards for print and electronic publications: ''
Film Quarterly
''Film Quarterly'' (FQ), published by University of California Press, is a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media. When FQ was launched in 1945 (then called ''Hollywood Quarterly''), it was considered "the first serious ...
'', ''Cultural Theory and Technology'',
''Signs'', ''
Journal of Film and Video
The ''Journal of Film and Video'' is the official academic journal of the University Film and Video Association. It features articles on film and video production, history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics. The journal is published by the Univers ...
'', ''
Journal of Popular Film and Television
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
'', and ''
Cinema Journal
The ''Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' (formerly ''Cinema Journal'' and ''The Journal of the Society of Cinematologists'') is the official academic journal of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies ...
'', to name a few. She has been an on-camera participant and voice-over commentator for several DVD features and featurettes. She can be seen delivering commentary, for example, on the bonus features of
''Dark City'',
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (Season 7) and Warner Bros. ''Tough Guys'' set of DVDs. She did a voice-over commentary on ''
His Kind of Woman
''His Kind of Woman'' is a 1951 film noir starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. The film features supporting performances by Vincent Price, Raymond Burr and Charles McGraw. The direction of the film, which was based on the unpublished sto ...
'' for the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3.
Works
Books
*''Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).
*''Beyond the Gaze: Recent Approaches to Film Feminisms''
pecial issue of ''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society''Vol. 30: no.1 (Autumn 2004), Co-editor with Kathleen McHugh.
* ''Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick Change'', Editor (Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
*''The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television and the Modern Event'', Editor (New York: AFI Film Reader Series, Routledge, 1996).
*''New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, Politics'', Co-editor with Nick Browne, Paul Pickowicz, and Esther Yau (London: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
*''The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,1992).
*''Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film'' (New York: Ungar Press,1987, rpt., Rutgers University Press, 1997).
*''The Limits of Infinity: The American Science Fiction Film 1950-1975'' (South Brunswick, NJ & New York: A.S. Barnes/London: Thomas Yoselloff, Ltd., 1980).
*''An Introduction to Film'', Co-author with Thomas Sobchack, (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1980).
Articles
*"Waking Life: Vivian Sobchack on the experience of Innocence," ''Film Comment'' 41, no. 6 (November/December 2005): 46–49.
*"Nostalgia for a Digital Object: Regrets on the Quickening of QuickTime," ''Millennium Film Journal'' 34 (Fall 1999): 4-23. available at
*"Toward a Phenomenology of Non-Fictional Experience," in ''Collecting Visible Evidence'', ed. Michael Renov and Jane Gaines (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 241–254.
*"'Lounge Time': Post-War Crises and the Chronotope of Film Noir," in ''Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory'', ed. Nick Browne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 129–170.
*"The Scene of the Screen: Envisioning Cinematic and Electronic ‘Presence," in ''Materialities of Communication'', ed. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht and K. Ludwig Pfeiffer (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 83–106.
*"The Active Eye: A Phenomenology of Cinematic Vision," ''Quarterly Review of Film and Video'', 12, no. 3 (1990): 21–36.
*"Cities on the Edge of Time: The Urban Science Fiction Film," ''East-West Film Journal'', 3, no. 1 (December 1988): 4–19.
References
External links
Biographyat Ryerson
*
ttp://www.artbrain.org/phantomlimb/sobchack.html Online articlesat artbrain.org
cinema.ucla.eduScholars on Sobchackat film-philosophy.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobchack, Vivian
1940 births
Living people
20th-century American historians
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American women writers
American film historians
American women film critics
American women historians
American women non-fiction writers
Barnard College alumni
Film theorists
Historians from New York (state)
Jewish American historians
Jewish American non-fiction writers
Jewish philosophers
Jewish women writers
Writers from Brooklyn