Since cinema has entered the digital era, its very nature has come under
renewed scrutiny. Countering the 'death of cinema' debate, Film History
as Media Archaeology presents a robust argument for the cinema's current
status as a new epistemological object, of interest to philosophers,
while also examining the presence of moving images in the museum and art
spaces as a challenge for art history. The current study is the fruit of
some twenty years of research and writing at the interface of film
history, media theory and media archaeology by one of the acknowledged
pioneers of the 'new film history' and 'media archaeology'. It joins the
efforts of other media scholars to locate cinema's historical emergence
and subsequent transformations within the broader field of media change
and interaction, as we experience them today.