Jan-Christopher Horak

• Professor
• E-mail:

Biography

Jan-Christopher Horak received his B.A. in history from the University of Delaware, an M.S. in film from Boston University, and his PhD. from the Dept. of Communications at the Westfalische Wilhlems-Universitat in Munster, Germany. His long career as a film archivist and curator has taken him from George Eastman House, where he was Senior Curator of the Film Department to the directorship of the Munich Filmmuseum (Germany). In 1998 he became Founding Director of Archives & Collections at Universal Studios, then moved to Hollywood Entertainment Museum, where he was curator until 2006. He has taught as an Adjunct at the University of Rochester, the Munich Film Academy, the University of Salzburg, and at Wayne State University’s Program Abroad, and has been Visiting Professor at UCLA since 1999, teaching in Critical Studies and in Moving Image Archive Studies. Horak has published numerous books, including “Making Images Move: Photographers and Avant-Garde Cinema” (1997), “Berge, Licht und Traum. Dr. Arnold Fanck und der deutsche Bergfilm” (1997), “Lovers of Cinema. The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919-1945” (1995), “The Dream Merchants: Making and Selling Films in Hollywood’s Golden Age” (1989), “Anti Nazi Filme der deutschsprachigen Emigration von Hollywood” (1984), “Fluchtpunkt Hollywood. Eine Dokumentation zur Filmemigration nach 1933” (1986 expanded 2nd edition), “Helmar Lerski – Lichtbildner. Fotographien und Filme 1910-1947 (1982), and Film und Foto der zwanziger Jahre” (1979). He has also published over 200 articles and reviews in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, Spanish, Czech, Swedish, and Hebrew language publications. His research interests continue to be classical Hollywood, especially silent cinema, German cinema, film propaganda, avant-garde and documentary film. In 2000 he founded “The Moving Inage: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists” (University of Minnesota Press), editing the first twelve issues. He is presently working on a book on designer and filmmaker Saul Bass.