Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema theorist, dies at 78

Gene Youngblood, American academic and film critic, passed away on April 6, 2021. He began his career in the 1960s as a reporter and film critic for the Los Angeles Herald and KHJ TV, later serving as art critic for KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles. From 1967 to 1970, he was co-editor and writer for the Los Angeles Free Press, a pioneering underground newspaper. In 1970, Youngblood joined the film and video faculty at the California Institute of Arts, and also taught at California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and UCLA. He consulted for the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Foundation, U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, and J. Paul Getty Trust. His seminal work, "Expanded Cinema" (1970, Italian edition by Clueb in 2013), analyzed connections between cinematic experimentation and video art, theorizing a new visual sphere where cinema breaks its conventional boundaries. Youngblood's research focused on the relationship between creativity and technology, anticipating contemporary discussions on new media arts.