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Dissertation
Imagine a Hollywood for the Greater Good: A Story of Lost Film, Found Family, and Recovered Dreams
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
Dec 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001907
Abstract
This autoethnographic study looked at the educative impact of movies, media, and performance art to nurture a better world. As an autoethnography, the researcher's own biography-as it relates to the study's focus-is a crucial part of the research. Perhaps the most unique and dramatic aspect of this study is its correction of Hollywood's origin story. It does this by remembering a lost film, Resurrection (1912)-based on a Leo Tolstoy novel about love and social justice-that the researcher has a family connection to. The film starred a great forgotten actress, Blanche Walsh, who played a loving role in the researcher's family story. The study is also about leadership. It blends new ideas in the fields of creativity, innovation, and systems thinking with classic scholarship on the vital civic role of art and imagination in a flourishing democracy. The researcher, John Bredin, is a leader who leans into his own stories as data. These include his leadership stories as an educator, host of a TV show on education, utopian performance artist, and leader of the effort to educate the world about Blanche Walsh and her role in Hollywood's forgotten birth. It combines a scholarly synthesis of entertainment, education, and social justice with a loving personal and family story. Conducted at the Drexel School of Education's doctoral program in Education Leadership, known for its creativity, the study combines aspects of the classic, time-honored five chapter dissertation with a newer, more innovative three essay style.
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Details
- Title
- Imagine a Hollywood for the Greater Good
- Creators
- John F. Bredin
- Contributors
- Lawrence J. Keiser (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- 251 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021819014904721