Shadows »

Ray Carney is Professor of American Studies and Film at Boston University, and the author of, among many other publications, The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism and the Movies (1994).

Ray Carney is Professor of Film and American Studies and Director of the undergraduate and graduate Film Studies programs at Boston University. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including the critically acclaimed The Films of Mike Leigh: Embracing the World (2000); The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies (1994); American Vision: The Films of Frank Capra (1996); Speaking the Language of Desire: The Films of Carl Dreyer (1989); American Dreaming (1985); the newly published Cassavetes on Cassavetes (2001), and John Cassavetes: The Adventure of Insecurity (1999).

He co-curated the Beat Culture and the New America show for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and is General Editor of the Cambridge Film Classics series.

He is regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on independent film and American art and culture, and he is a frequent speaker at film festivals around the world.

This is a study of the film Shadows, directed by John Cassavetes. The film tells the story of three beatnik siblings living together. In this book, Carney addresses how the film deals with racial issues, despite the director wishing it to be a human film concerned to rescue the "small feelings" of life.