Book Launch Party: Kate Fortmueller in Conversation with Richard Neupert for Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production

Below the Stars by Kate Fortmueller
Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Avid Bookshop is honored to present Kate Fortmueller in celebration of her newest book, Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors Shapes Media Production. Kate will be in conversation with Richard Neupert. This virtual author event will take place on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, from 7pm - 8pm ET via Zoom.

To attend this event, purchase a ticket (or select a no-cost ticket). You will receive a Zoom link via email one hour before the event begins. Please purchase your tickets early, as ticket sales will be cut off at 7pm ET on the day of the event (July 13, 2021).

We have 3 ticketing options:

  • Pay-What-You-Can ticket & book bundle (including a copy of the featured book)
  • Pay-What-You-Can ticket only (no books)
  • No-cost ticket to get Zoom event access only (no books)

Please support Athens, Georgia's only independent bookshop (and our author, of course!) by purchasing Kate's books from Avid Bookshop via the links below.

ABOUT THE FEATURED BOOK:

Despite their considerable presence in Hollywood, extras and working actors have received scant attention within film and media studies as significant contributors to the history of the industry. Looking not to the stars but to these supporting players in film, television, and, recently, streaming programming, Below the Stars highlights such actors as precarious laborers whose work as freelancers has critically shaped the entertainment industry throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By addressing ordinary actors as a labor force, Kate Fortmueller proposes a media industry history that positions underrepresented and quotidian experiences as the structural elements of the culture and business of Hollywood. Resisting a top-down assessment, Fortmueller explores the wrangling of labor unions and guilds that advocated for collective action for everyday actors and helped shape professional norms. She pulls from archival research, in-person interviews, and firsthand observation to examine a history that cuts across industry boundaries and situates actors as a labor group at the center of industrial and technological upheavals, with lasting implications for race, gender, and labor relations in Hollywood.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kate Fortmueller is an assistant professor of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia and the author of two July 2021 books, both from the University of Texas Press. Her recent releases include this event's featured book, Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors Shapes Media Production, as well as Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID.

ABOUT THE IN-CONVERSATION PARTNER:

Richard Neupert is the Charles H. Wheatley Professor of the Arts and a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. He teaches film history and theory. His special areas of interest are French cinema, narrative theory, and animation. His books include John Lasseter (U of Illinois Press, 2016), French Animation History (WileyBlackwell 2011), A History of the French New Wave Cinema (Wisconsin UP, 2003, 2007) and The End: Narration and Closure in Cinema (Wayne State UP, 1995). He also translated two books from French: Aesthetics of Film (Texas UP, 1997) and The French New Wave: An Artistic School (Blackwell, 2002). Professor Neupert is the coordinator of UGA's Film Studies major and the Film Studies minor, and is on the Board of Directors for the non-profit Ciné movie theater.

Event Location

Avid Bookshop on Zoom
Books: 
$50.00
SKU: 071321ticket 9781477323076
$
Minimum: $50.00

$5.00
SKU: 071321ticket
$
Minimum: $5.00

Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production By Kate Fortmueller Cover Image
$45.00
ISBN: 9781477323076
Availability: May take several months to arrive, if available from publisher
Published: University of Texas Press - July 13th, 2021

Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID By Kate Fortmueller Cover Image
$21.95
ISBN: 9781477324608
Availability: In our warehouse - should arrive/ship in 5-10 business days. (Currently not on our shelves.)
Published: University of Texas Press - July 20th, 2021