What becomes of Hollywood when entertainment is no longer confined to the screen? Gathered over five years, with an introduction by Nolan Kelly, A Hollywoodland Tale examines how filmmaking, storytelling, and the institutions that organize cultural production are being reshaped in the twenty-first century.
The conversations published here span independent and commercial production; the convergence of entertainment, art, fashion, and technology; and the relationship between mass media, culture, and real estate. Together, they position Hollywood not simply as an industry or a place, but as a lens through which to understand culture, capital, and power today.
A Hollywoodland TaleNEW
The story of Hollywood in the twenty-first century is the story of every other major American industry.
By Nolan Kelly
Pension & HollywoodNEW
What other histories of Hollywood become visible when we look at the financial systems embedded in its architecture?
By Adam Fried
Jerome Robbins as Ballet MakerNEW
I see someone who loves an artform and wants badly for it to love him back.
By Eve Bromberg
Franklin LeonardNew
I often say that Hollywood’s governed by conventional wisdom: it’s all convention, no wisdom.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Celeste Yim
Comedy is as much timing and sound as it is space and distance.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Christine VachonNEW
All a ‘commercial film’ means is that it made its money back.
in conversation with Owen Durkee
Lance OppenheimNEW
I think maybe what interests me is the idea that dreams can become prisons.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Gus Van Sant
I like stories about people who are secretly intelligent.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Emily SchubertNEW
The work is in the hand. It’s the touch, the bedside manner, and the intimacy of actually doing it yourself.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Kelly Reichardt
I’m a politically minded person, but I try to make character films.
in conversation with Nolan Kelly
Lionel Boyce
Season one of The Bear was a punk song. It was like a punch in the mouth. Season two is an album.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Amy GravittNEW
I need a dose of comedy in everything that I do.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Justin KuritzkesNEW
A screenplay is both a literary document and a blueprint for architectural plans. It’s something you’re inviting hundreds of people to come make.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Gregg ArakiNEW
I don’t go to the movies to watch normal people doing normal shit.
in conversation with Nolan Kelly
Konrad Kay & Mickey Down
Everyone thinks of their respective field as ‘the industry.’ Whether you work in art, fashion, film, or finance, it carries the same charge.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Jena MaloneNEW
I realized that I didn’t know how to become a woman in Los Angeles.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Arthur Jafa
A lot of people are winning at winning, but they’re not necessarily winning at art.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Bonnie WrightNEW
I began on the biggest possible stage with Harry Potter and have gradually moved toward more independent forms of storytelling.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Abbi JacobsonNEW
I think I’d spent most of my life adapting to the world instead of questioning it.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Matt WolfNEW
You have to find the you-shaped opening inside an industry that’s increasingly narrow and averse to trying new things that don’t fit into established categories.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
B.J. Novak
I’ve never been interested in being consumed by the joke.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Lena Dunham
People sometimes thought I cared more about myself than I did.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
Bret Easton Ellis
I do not know why Less Than Zero has stuck around. It actually has outstayed its welcome.
in conversation with Emmanuel Olunkwa
LightDark