Veronica Paredes is a doctoral candidate in Media Arts and Practice (MAP) at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is currently finishing a dissertation project called, “Marquee Survivals: A Multimodal History of Cinema’s Recycled Spaces.”
Authors | Veronica Paredes
Articles on Amodern by Veronica Paredes
CONNECTIONS CONCEALED
Signaling (Racial) Excess from the Historic Movie Palace-Turned-Church
While American movie palaces have historically been associated with white middle-class film audiences, in their post-cinematic uses they have acted as significant nodes in alternative media networks catering to racially diverse constituents. The conversion of one such palace in Washington Heights shows how cinematic infrastructures have provided a symbolic and material foundation for the convergence of Black televangelism and American megachurches. This article suggests scholarly methods for pushing beyond nostalgic invocations of traditional film culture in order to address the vibrant social networks and media cultures that emerge in repurposed movie theaters.