Jeanine Basinger

Jeanine Basinger is the Corwin-Fuller Emerita Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University, founder of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, founding Chair of the Film Studies Department, and a two-time recipient of Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She has authored over one dozen books and nearly 100 articles on film.  Basinger is the co-author of Hollywood: The Oral History; author of Silent Stars, which won the National Board of Review’s William K. Everson Prize, and author of The Star Machine, which won the Theatre Library Association Award.  She also served as Associate Producer on two episodes of PBS’s long-running documentary series, American Masters.

Basinger is a trustee of the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute and a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. She also is an advisor to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation project, The Story of Movies.

As founder of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, Basinger was responsible for and continues to consult on the care of papers from some of film history’s most significant names, both then and now: Frank Capra, Clint Eastwood, Elia Kazan, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Raoul Walsh, Gene Tierney, Kay Francis, Marion Davies, and more.

Wesleyan’s new Center for Film Studies was named in Basinger’s honor in 2021 in tribute to her establishment of the nationally recognized film program, her profusion of scholarly publications, and her ongoing alumni relationships.