Concept Engagement

Ewen and Ewen show that US film culture went through a significant shift from the 1910s to the 1920s. In the 1910s, movies and movie houses offered spaces and stories that spoke directly to working-class immigrants, and particularly immigrant women. By the 1920s, movies began telling very different stories to immigrant women. According to Ewen and Ewen, in what ways did movies in the 1910s speak to working class immigrants, and in what ways did movies start to tell different stories in the 1920s? Explain how this shift in movie culture relates to the concept of antiseptic electrical space.