The Sooner State is finally getting due recognition for its contributions to American cinema.

The new collection from Oklahoma City-based publisher Forty-Sixth Star Press, “Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies,” foregrounds the locale upon which we stand—one that historically has not received proper recognition in the greater realm of filmmaking.

Edited by Larry Van Meter, the collection of 19 essays calls attention to the history of films that have either been shot or set in Oklahoma, from more popular titles such as Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” to John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” to lesser known films such as “This Stuff’ll Kill Ya!” and “Okie Noodling.”

Although a handful of the films included in the collection have warranted more staying power in popular culture than their brethren, the authors succeed in making a solid case for the significance of the respective films in the canon of American cinema.

These authors employ the force of their varying backgrounds both to afford the collection a healthy dose of stylistic diversity, as well as to grant Oklahoma a new appeal among today’s film-savvy generations.

They approach this noble task as writers, as academics (including OU Film and Video Studies professor Katrina Boyd), as librarians, and as Oklahoma residents of yesterday and today.

Contributor and former Oklahoma resident Ryan Taylor centers his essay, “Baptism by Substitute: ‘The Outsiders’ and How It Singlehandedly Got Me Through Middle School” on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film, which was shot in Tulsa.

In his reflective essay, Taylor relies upon a warm and inviting nostalgia in his recollections of watching “The Outsiders” as a young teen and what the film’s themes have meant to him on a personal level.

He writes: “It was no mere accident that our teachers left behind Francis Ford Coppola’s nostalgic ode to teen angst for the subs to play. They knew the score. Showing ‘The Outsiders’ to a group of Okie tweens was something akin to gassing the classroom in a haze of Ritalin vapor.”

In this statement, Taylor demonstrates the sentiment that is largely present throughout the collection: that Oklahoma cinema works to shape our identities as greatly as any “more glamorous” settings popularized in the traditions of visual storytelling.

In addressing the effects of “The Outsiders,” Taylor unknowingly speaks also to the overall spirit of “Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies.”

In a passage that “does proud” Oklahoma’s greater cinematic heritage, Taylor writes of “The Outsiders”: “Still, as the venerable Wizard of Oz might say, ‘it’s got one thing those other films haven’t got.’ Oklahoma. And lots of it.”