LSAT 155, Section 3, RC Passage 1, Exhibiting Films

RC Passage 1 Explanation

Paragraph Summaries

1. Just like how art might be exhibited according to what they have in common, such as creator or theme, films are also collected together according to common factors. One collection is early nonfiction film.
2. “Collecting the similar” is inappropriate for early nonfiction film because it shows several similar films in the same sitting, which wasn’t the practice at the time the films were made. Nonfiction films were shown mixed together with other film types.
3. Authenticity is emphasized during restoring films, but not during exhibition. It’s better do exhibit the films the way they were intended to be shown.

Analysis

This is a pretty straight-forward humanities passage. In the first paragraph, we’re given an analogy to explain how films are exhibited by grouping them by some common denominator. In particular, the author says that early nonfiction films are also treated this way.

In the second paragraph, we get a sense on the author’s opinion of this method of exhibition: he doesn’t like it. Early nonfiction films aren’t supposed to be shown together since they were intended as supporting films, and were always shown together with other types of films.

In the third paragraph, the author criticizes the fact that there’s authenticity when restoring the films, but not when exhibiting the films. He says that the early film presenters knew what they were doing, and ignoring their wisdom is a bad idea.