Los Angeles was a cinematic city long before the rise of Hollywood. By the dawn of the 20th century, photography, painting and tourist promotion in Southern California provided early filmmakers with a template for building a myth-making business and envisioning ideal moviegoers. These art forms positioned California as a land of transformative experiences, and catapulted the dusty backwater town of Los Angeles to the largest city on the West Coast by 1915.  

John Trafton, Ph.D., author and lecturer at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, explores how Hollywood, an industry based on world-building, was the product of many previous art forms in the land of sunshine.

Trafton received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he also lectured in film studies and served as departmental research coordinator. He was an instructor in film studies at Seattle University and an instructor for the Seattle International Film Festival’s education program from 2017 to 2023. His research and teaching focuses on visual culture and its impact on film history, theory, and practices. His most recent book, Movie-Made Los Angeles (2023), explores how pre-cinema visual culture in Southern California from 1880 to 1920 contributed to the growth of Los Angeles as a cultural economy and the center for American cinema during the early 20th century. His current research looks at Mexican Muralism and its impact on art education and the training of film animators and production designers during the 1930s.

The book will be available for sale at this event, and Professor Trafton will be delighted to sign your copy.