The Development Film in the Americas

Molly Geidel

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English

University of California Press
28 October 2025

Film theory & criticism; Documentary movies & films; General & world history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000

In this book, Molly Geidel traces the rise and fall of the development film, an overlooked film genre that circulated widely in the Americas from the 1940s through the 1970s. Development films, often short documentaries, were made at the behest of state agencies, global governance organizations, and private corporations to link capitalist conceptions of economic growth to improved quality of life. Development films made this link beautifully compelling, blending elements from ethnography and socially committed leftist film traditions to create indelible narratives of underdevelopment and modernization. The Development Film in the Americas tells the story of these films and the hemispheric cohort of filmmakers who crafted them, chronicling the filmmakers' fraught relationships with both the organizations they worked for and the actors in their films.

By: Molly Geidel
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780520416482
ISBN 10: 0520416481
Pages: 326
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Molly Geidel is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College and author of Peace Corps Fantasies: How Development Shaped the Global Sixties.