Privacy, the Celluloid City, and the Cinematic Eye
Privacy, the Celluloid City, and the Cinematic Eye
This chapter focuses on the cinematic camera’s recordings of women in urban public space. It examines claims to a right to privacy in relation to early nonfiction film in the form of cinema advertising, newsreels and documentaries. The cases discussed are significant for their contribution to the development of privacy law, and to the study of early film history. They offer insights into the discomfort experienced by those caught unknowingly in a motion picture during this period. The plaintiffs (all women) tell vividly of their shock and distress at becoming the object of a mass gaze, with their movements and mannerisms looming larger than life on the big screen. These women fought for restrictions on the practices of early filmmaking, but the cases also reveal the limits of the doctrine of privacy when used in this context. Courts tended to frame the issue in terms of the gendered public/private dichotomy (so entrenched within the law), usually privileging the masculine “public interest” in nonfiction filmmaking (for news, documentary or ethnographic purposes) over a woman’s individual right to privacy.
Keywords: Cinema, Newsreel, Documentary, Advertising, City, Dichotomy, Gaze, Public, Privacy, Women
Yale Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
