A senior lecturer at De Montfort University (DMU) will be able to continue his research into the influence of the baby boom generation on the American film industry, thanks to a research grant to DMU from the Leverhulme Trust.
Dr James Russell, subject leader for Film Studies at DMU, has been awarded more than £98,000 to fund a two-year project entitled ‘Hollywood and the Baby Boom: A Social History’.
For the first time, researchers working with Dr Russell will attempt to write the history of a generation whose tastes and preferences have influenced American movie culture for the past 60 years – and who continue to dominate the industry today.
“What we’re trying to do is to explore the relationship between American movies and the baby boomers,” said Dr Russell.
“This was a generation that had a massive impact on the content of American movies, the behaviour of mainstream film audiences and the very nature of the film industry.
“From the moment they appeared, they constituted a massive audience that Hollywood has focused on ever since – and when they hit their late 20s, they began to dominate the industry as filmmakers, executives and stars.
“It is no exaggeration to say that, for the last 60 years, almost every development in American movie culture has reflected the tastes and preferences of the baby boomers – and yet their history has never been written.”
Dr Russell’s research project will focus on the American baby boomers as both audiences and filmmakers, encouraging them to record their memories on a major website.
By the end of the project, the team will have created a web resource for future generations of scholars – and a monograph that will provide new insights into the history of American movies.
‘Hollywood and the Baby Boom: A Social History’ will run for two years from December 2011.
Earlier this year, DMU was awarded another grant by the Leverhulme Trust. Dr Elizabeth Lambourn, a Reader in South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, received a Major Research Fellowship of more than £85,000 to research her studies into the lives of communities from West Asia in the Indian Ocean in the period before 1500 AD.
