to me
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Dear Mr. Villacorta:
Recently, the Academy’s Grants
Committee met to select the recipients of the Academy Film Scholars
Grants. Out of 68 applications received, the Committee
members were pleased and excited to discover a number of
exceptional proposals. After a great deal of discussion
including praise for a number of the proposals, the committee
ultimately selected two. Regrettably, your proposal was not
selected.
A press release announcing the two newest
Academy Film Scholars will be distributed in the near future and I
will make sure a copy is e-mailed to you.
The committee
asked me to inform the applicants how much they enjoyed reading the
proposals and how worthy many of them seemed. They anticipate
that a number of the proposals will come to fruition. They
also wanted you to know that your re-application to the program in
the future would be welcome. The online application form will
be available once again in late summer or early fall.
Best
of luck in all your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Shawn
Guthrie
Manager, Grants and Student Academy Awards
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts &
Sciences
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Jan 31 |
to me
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Thank you for your submission.
Your application has been submitted successfully, and the
tracking number is 28143. You will be receiving more information
on the status of your application shortly. For your records,
here is a copy of the contents of your
application.
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Prefix
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Mr.
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First Name
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Jorge
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Middle Name or Initial
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Luis
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Last Name
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Villacorta
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Street Address
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Los
Halcones 563. Urb. Sta. Cecilia. Bellavista.
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City
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Callao
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N/A if this field is not applicable to you.
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N/A
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Zip Code
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07006
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Country
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If
you do not see your country listed select "Other"
from the drop-down and enter your country in the Street
Address field above.
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Peru
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Phone
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14514334
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Mobile Phone
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938150618
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E-mail Address
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Co-Applicant
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Last Name
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Project Title
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Hollywood
And The U.S. Intelligence Community: Typical Images.
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Project Statement Summary
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(One
or two paragraphs summarizing the project)
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The
images that the American mainstream movies show of the U.S.
Intelligence Community (IC) constitute a visual mythology in
the making. Due to the immense importance of the activities
developed by the IC, its portrayal mobilize emotions that can
be as intense as a religious passion. While an institution
like the Catholic Church has had hundreds of years to develop
its visual discourse, the young IC is developing its visual
ideology right now helped by the powerful influence of the
movies. Identifying the most typical of these images is
necessary to begin the study of this novel iconography.
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Project Type
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(i.e.
book, multi media presentation, interactive dvd, curatorial
project, website)
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Book
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College/University Affiliation (if any)
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(List
for both if there are two applicants)
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Projected Project Completion Date
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06/11/2018
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Anticipated Use of Grant Funds
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(e.g.,
research travel, time off, book photos, etc.)
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Books,
time off, research travel, acquisition of materials (books,
DVDs), book photos.
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UPLOAD
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Choose the Title from the drop down
menu of the file you wish to attach.
2. Click the Browse
button to search for the file you wish to upload. Click the
file you want to attach then click the Open button.
3.
Click the Upload button to attach the file to this
application.
4. Then return to the Title drop down to
repeat Steps 1-3 for the next document.
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Project Statement
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(up
to five pages)
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Bibliography
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(up
to three pages)
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C.V.
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PROJECT
STATEMENT
Title:
Hollywood And The U.S. Intelligence
Community: Typical Images.
Author:
Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato
a.
Description of the Project.
The
movies are entertainment and propaganda because they contribute to
spread the ideals of freedom around the world. The U.S. Intelligence
Community (IC) was created on December 4, 1981. This project intends
to create a visual history of how the member organizations of the IC
have been depicted in the American mainstream movies: their
headquarters, offices, tools, employees, activities and foes. Even
though some explanations will be given as text to understand the
context, this book pretends to be a visual reference for further
study.
b.
Objective and Methodology.
b.1.
Objective: To select typical images about the Intelligence Community
(IC) from the most representative American motion pictures since the
creation of the IC.
b.2.Methodology:
b.1.
Through the analysis of the literature created by scholars, the
categories used by the members of the American film industry, the
practices of the member organizations of the U.S. Intelligence
Community (IC), the tastes of the audiences, and pertinent movies,
one main concept will be created: “typical
image of the IC in an American mainstream movie”.
b.2.
This concept will be transformed into a very conscious operational
defintion that will guide the selection of movies, still images from
those movies, and the textual descriptions of both of them, movies
and still images.
b.3.
The visual material selected will be organized and presented in such
a didactic way that the content of the concept “typical image of
the IC in an American mainstream movie” will be easily grasped by
the readers.
c.
Academic or Professional Context.
While
there are many studies about the members of the U.S. Intelligence
Community (IC) and their relations to the American film industry,
those scholar works emphasize historical descriptions and the
interpretation of documents, and film narratives. For example,
excellent studies like those of Lawrence H. Suid (“Guts and Glory:
The Making of the Military Image in Film”, “Sailing on the Silver
Screen: Hollywood and the U.S. Navy”, “Stars and Stripes on
Screen: A Comprenhensive Guide To Portrayals of American Military on
Film”) do not focus exclusively on the agency that belongs to the
IC (Office of Naval Intelligence, Intelligence and Security Command)
but on the parent agency (United States Navy, United States Army).
Also, even though these books are illustrated, do not give primary
importance to the visual aspect on the intended period of our study.
The same happens with books like “The FBI and the Movies: A History
of the Bureau on Screen and Behind the Scenes on Hollywood” by Bob
Herzberg, which is a historical acount from the 1930s to the 1960s or
“J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of
Hollywood’s Cold War” by John Sbardellah which focuses on the
post-war period 1942-1958 and provides a new consideration of the Red
Scare. Research about the Central Intelligence Agency and Hollywood
explore their relation at different levels but the visual aspect is
outside the interests of investigation. Among these works we have
“The CIA in Hollywood: How the Agency Shapes Film and Television”
by Tricia Jenkins; “Hollywood and the CIA: Cinema, Defense and
Subversion” by Oliver Boyd Barret, David Herrera, and James A.
Baumann; “In Secrecy’s Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood
Cinema 1939-1979” by Simon Willmetts; and “Spooked: How the CIA
Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood” by Nicholas Schou.
There are other studies related to the subject that also have the
tendency to describe procedures and events without giving priority to
the images: “Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and
Censors the Movies” by David L. Robb; “Hearts and Mines: The US
Empire’s Culture Industry” by Tanner Mirrlees; or “The Cultural
Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters”. All these
studies (and many more) as interesting as they are follow a totally
different approach to the subject than my project. Even those studies
that should consider the importance of the emotional power of images
choose literary explanations and exposition of data. For example the
following three book, that can be a reference to identify movies that
show enemies of the IC, favor the printed word instead than the
image: “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” and
“Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11” by Jack G.
Shaheen; and “”Evil” Arabs in American Popular Film:
Orientalist Fear” by Tim Jon Semmerling. So, it is evident that my
proposal is original.
d.
Film industry subjects or ideas
in the project that have been underrepresented in the canon of film
scholarship to date.
Contemporary
film scholars seem to forget that the movies are an audiovisual
medium and that the images shown and the sounds heard are socially
built and consumed. The pleasure and excitement that these narratives
generate depend on complex combinations of social factors that
condition their potential to create satisfaction. Looking for
“typical images” of the U.S. Intelligence Community in Hollywood
movies we will understand what is not considered “typical,” why
the image would classify as “typical” due to its components and
in what context. This way we will have to challenge our own
acceptance of what we watch and, at some point, become conscious
again of the fact that the movie imagery is an illusion that we share
willingly or unknowingly. This heighten consciousness is a key
component in this project. It is important at a time when an image
pretends to be a fact and not a conventional representation. To
understand this phenomenon we should try to answer questions like:
what was the typical XVI century representation of The Devil by the
Catholic Church? The images of the Moon landings were believable
because they were televised? Why a few people perceived the Moon
landings as fake after a few decades? These questions force us to
examine the conditions of production and reception of the messages
and to see them as human products, more as suggestions than as facts.
e.
The project’s significance in
its field of study.
In
the areas of the visual arts and the sociology of film this project
will allow us to understand the characteristic of the visual ideology
created by the American mainstream movies in relation to the U.S.
Intelligence Community (IC). While an institution like the Catholic
Church has had centuries to define visually its leaders, its
militants and heroes, its foes and friends, its spiritual or
corporeal battles, and design the look of its buildings, offices, and
headquarters, the IC is only three decades old but it is supported by
an extraordinary propaganda machine: the cinema. Bertrand Russell
stated that Hollywood was creating a new religion. So, the project I
propose will help to perceive as a whole the visual mythology that
this institution, the IC, is creating with the support of the film
industry. We will look at it with the distance of researchers who are
interested in this work in progress.
f. How
my professional experience is relevant to the project.
As
the curator of The Leonidas Zegarra Museum and the personal film
critic of the Peruvian anti-communist filmmaker Leonidas Zegarra I am
very interested in understanding the processes that transform objects
and images into icons. Also, as a professor who teaches research
courses for communications students at the undergraduate level I pay
attention to the clear delimitation of the subjects of investigation
and to appropriate research procedures. Having performed in front of
the camera as an actor in the movie “María y los niños pobres”
(2010) and behind it as assistant director in the same movie (and
editor), I am aware of the ingenuity and technicality that the
creation of movie images demand. Loving comic books and drawing and
inking them from time to time for fun or in order to participate in
contests is a helpful combination when it is time to see and analyze
images.
g.
The project’s significance to
my own professional development.
As
a museum curator this study might provide me with new strategies to
contribute to the reputation of The Leonidas Zegarra Museum. Mr.
Zegarra wants his museum to become a center of dissemination of
anti-communist ideology around Peru. So, learning how the
institutions that promote and protect freedom present themselves
would be very productive.
As
a scholar interested in communication studies and the history of art
this project would give me with information relevant in both areas.
The publishing of this book would be an invaluable sample of my
research interests, specially when applying for a job in an American
university. Right now, I teach in a Peruvian university but, I would
like to have the experience of teaching in an American university
someday.
As
an artist who expresses himself in visual and audiovisual formats the
analysis of the subject would help me to be more creative or, at
least, to take novel risks. A thorough understanding of what is being
made at this time allows innovation. I want to self-publish a
graphic novel in the U.S. based on the U.S. Intelligence Community
and this research project would be an optimum source of information
for the comic book project.
h. Provide
a timetable for completing the project.
April
– June 2017: Funds arrive.
June
– July 2017: Study of the information available and delimitation of
the subject.
August
2017: Creation and test of the operational definition.
September
– December 2017: Selection of the movies and still images.
January
2018 – March 2018: Organization and description of the material
(writing of texts needed).
March
2018 – April 2018: Beginning of the publishing process. The book
must be published on May or June 2018.
i. Any
grants, residencies or additional resources already available to me.
Description of my project and how I intend to use the Academy grant.
I
do not have additional resources available to me right now.
I
intend to use the Academy grant to finance the free time and obtain
the resources that I need to develop the project. I would teach a
mininal number of hours. Books, magazines, DVDs and other sources of
information has costs that must be paid. Publishing costs will be
covered by the Academy grant, too.
----
Select Bibliography
Title:
Hollywood and the U.S. Intelligence Community: Typical Images
Author:
Jorge Luis Villacorta Santamato
Alford,
Matthew (2010), Reel
Power: Hollywood Cinema And American Supremacy,
London: Pluto Press.
Bagdikian,
Ben H. (2004), The
New Media Monopoly,
Boston: Beacon Press.
Birkenstein,
Jeff, Anna Froula and Karen Randell (2010), Reframing
9/11: Film, Popular Culture And The “War On Terror”,
New York: Continuum.
Boyd-Barrett,
Oliver, David Herrera and James A. Baumann (2011), Hollywood
And The CIA: Cinema, Defense and Subversion, New
York: Routledge.
Boggs,
Carl and Leslie Thomas Pollard (2006), The
Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism And Popular Culture,
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Bogle,
Lori Lyn (2004), The
Pentagon´s Battle For The American Mind: The Early Cold War,
Texas: College Station, TX: A&M University Press.
Cull,
Nicholas J. (2008), The
Cold War And The United States Information Agency: American
Propaganda And Public Diplomacy, 1945 – 1989,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dowbenko,
Uri (2004), Hookwinked:
Watching Movies With Eyes Wide Open,
Pray, MT: Conspiracy Digest.
Doron,
Meir and Joseph Gelman (2011), Confidential:
The Life Of Secret Spy Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan,
New York: Geffen Books.
Fulbright,
James William (1970), The
Pentagon Propaganda Machine,
New York: Liveright.
Graham,
Robbie (2015), Silver
Screen Saucers: Sorting Fact From Fantasy In Hollywood’s UFO
Movies,
Hove, United Kingdom: White Crow Books.
Herzberg,
Bob (2007), The
FBI and the Movies: A History of the Bureau on Screen and Behind the
Scenes on Hollywood, Jefferson,
N.C.: McFarland & Co.
Hoffman
II, Michael A. (2001), Secret
Societies And Psychological Warfare,
Coeur d’Alene, ID: Independent History And Research.
Jenkins,
Tricia Anne (2012), The
CIA In Hollywood: How The Agency Shapes Film And Television,
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Leab,
Daniel J. (2007), Orwell
Subverted: The CIA And The Filming Of Animal Farm,
University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Mirrlees,
Tanner. (2016), Harts
and Mines: The US Empire’s Culture Industry,
Vancouver: UBC Press.
Osborne,
Bob, (1990), Propaganda
Tool: The Hollywood War Movie And Its Usurpation By TV,
Pennsylvania: U.S. Army War College
Osgood,
Kenneth (2006), Total
Cold War: Eisenhower´s Secret Propaganda Battle At Home And Abroad,
Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
Richelson
T., Jeffrey (1999), The
U.S. Intelligence Community,
Boulder CO: Westview Press.
Robb,
David L. (2004), Operation
Hollywood: How The Pentagon Shapes And Censors The Movies,
New York: Prometheus Books.
Saunders,
Frances Stonor (2001), The
Cultural Cold War: The CIA And The Worlds Of Arts And Letters,
New York: The New Press.
Sbardellatti,
John (2012), J.
Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of
Hollywood’s Cold War,
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Schou,
Nicholas (2003), Spooking
The News: How The CIA Manipulates The Media And Hoodwinks Hollywood,
Unknown place of publishing: Hot Books.
Segrave,
Kerry (1997), American
Films Abroad: Hollywood´s Domination Of The World´s Movie Screens
From The 1890s To The Present,
Jefferson, NC: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub.
Semmerling,
Tim Jon, “Evil”
Arabs in American Popular Film: Orientalist Fear,
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Shaw,
Tony (2007), Hollywood´s
Cold War,
Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Shaheen,
Jack G. (2008),
Guilty:
Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11,
Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press.
Shaheen,
Jack G. (2009),
Reel
Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,
Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press.
Simpson,
Christopher ed. (1996), Science
Of Coercion: Communication Research And Psychological Warfare,
1945-1960, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stahl,
Roger (2009), Militainment,
Inc.: War, Media And Popular Culture,
New York: Routledge.
Stone,
Travis (2015), A
Time For Deception: False-Flags, Technology Suppresion, And Deep CIA
Secrets,
Unknown: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Suid,
Lawrence H. (2002), Guts
And Glory: The Making Of The American Military Image In
Film,Lexington,
KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
Suid,
Lawrence H. (1996), Sailing
On The Silver Screen: Hollywood And The U.S. Navy,
Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press.
Suid,
Lawrence H. (2005),
Stars
and Stripes on Screen:
A Comprenhensive Guide To Portrayals of American Military on Film,
Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
Trumpbour,
John (2002), Selling
Hollywood To The World: U.S. And European Struggles For Mastery Of
The Global Film Industry, 1920 – 1950,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
United
States, Joint Chiefs of Staff (2010), JP
3-13.2 Psychological Operations,
Washington, DC: Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Valantin,
Jean-Michel (2005),Hollywood,
The Pentagon And Washington: The Movies And National Security From
World War II To The Present Day,
:Anthem Press.
Willmets,
Simon (2016), In
Secrecy’s Shadow: The OSS And CIA In Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979,
Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Wood,
Judy (2009), Where
Did The Towers Go?,
Los Angeles, CA: Feral House.
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