ABSTRACT
Focusing on German film culture of the early twentieth century, this chapter outlines a new approach for examining the emergence and development of film societies in the context of a broader associational culture. To that end, it draws on insights from media archaeology and histories of sociability to approach the film society as a phenomenon at once more diverse than generally acknowledged and held together by a desire to shape a nascent medium by influencing how the public engaged with it. Following a broad discussion of this approach, I outline three key categories—what I call relations, productions, and ideas—that can help us understand specific aspects of film societies: their genealogy, their operations, and their legacy.
