Have you ever wondered what movies were like before they had sound? The Pasadena Senior Center is hosting a series of lectures about films from silent comedians to the advent of sound film.
This is part of the Senior Center’s seven-part Masters Series Winter Term 2021, “History of American Movies,” that is open to anyone in the public. It started last Tuesday but continues every Tuesday, 2 to 4 p.m., up to February 23.
In these lectures, Dr. Jonathan Kuntz, a film historian and widely respected expert on Hollywood cinema and the development of the studio system, will cover the American film industry from the birth of Hollywood at the turn of the 20th century through the challenges facing film making and distribution today.
Dr. Kuntz is currently a lecturer at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He studied psychology at UC Berkeley and UCLA before earning a PhD in Film and Television at the UCLA College of Fine Arts.
Kuntz has welcomed several generations of students to the study of cinema with his popular undergraduate course on the history of the American motion picture, offered every quarter. He has appeared in numerous documentaries on American film history as an expert on film production and exhibition, and has contributed to the New York Times.
Known for his encyclopedic knowledge, Kuntz has been quoted in the media on many topics from the careers of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe to the effects of the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm.
This Tuesday, January 19, on the Pasadena Senior Center’s Masters Series, Dr. Kuntz will discuss “From the Great Silent Comedians to the Advent of Sound Film.”
Registration fees for the series is $90 for Senior Center members and $105 for non-members.
To register, visit www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org/
For more information, call Annie Laskey at (626) 685-6756 or email anniel@pasadenaseniorcenter.