Dana Steven's book, Camera Man, is a great place to start. It's about Buster Keaton so you get the transition from Vaudeville to film. She's a writer for Slate and does their podcast and b/c of that she was able to get on a crapton of podcasts, everyone from Marc Maron to the New Books Network. I like this interview with her: https://newbooksnetwork.com/dana-stevens-keaton-on-buster-keaton-jp-ef

The New Books Network has a good podcast on film from various academic viewpoints as well. https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/arts-letters/film

Also, I'm going to post more about this in my reading for the week, but Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher is about Edward Curtis and it discusses his important film, Land of the Head Hunters.