Auto/Ethnography and Tinsel Town: Nathaniel Kohn'S Pursuing Hollywood and How it Relates to My Own Experiences Chasing the Dream of Creating Culture Through Cinema

Abstract

In Nathaniel Kohn's Pursuing Hollywood, auto/ethnography and interpretive interaction are discussed alongside postmodern sign theory and the machinations of making films in the Hollywood system. Interwoven into this review-essay of Kohn's book are auto/ethnographical elements of the reviewer's personal experiences making an independent film and doing business in what the reviewer refers to as La La Land. While Kohn's book is meant to be an insider's gaze onto a world few know first-hand, the reviewer has had similar experiences and reads the book as an identifying text and a launch point for his own experiential accounts.

Keywords: auto/ethnography, Baudrillard, film business, Hollywood, interpretive interaction, memoir, postmodern theory

JEL Classification: A12, A14, B30, D20, D30, D71, D74, D8, P23