John Locke, MA

Concordia's first appointment in Fine Arts/Cinema, John Locke has taught seminars on film technology and style, film theory and criticism, and Hitchcock and Welles. Locke's previous graduate work was in analytical philosophy with a concentration in aesthetics and the philosophy of language. His research interests include the concept of "style" in film and art, the films of 1931-33 and their cultural contexts, and the "unknown documentary", Jean Dréville's Autour de l'argent (1928). Locke has written for film and art magazines in Canada and the United States on experimental film and film criticism, including a seminal two-part article written in the 1970s for Art Forum on Michael Snow's La région centrale. His recent work on "how-to" filmmaking books include topics such as script-writing and film technology in the silent era. Locke occupies a position outside mainstream film theory, influenced by anti-theory theory as exemplifed in the work of David Bordwell and Noel Carroll and by analytical philosophy growing out of late Wittgenstein works.

Education

MA (New York University)

Research interests

The concept of "style" in film and art, the films of 1931-33 and their cultural contexts, the "unknown documentary".