Flashback: A Brief History of Film by Louis Giannetti covers the history of film, focusing on the years between 1870 and 2005. It creates a time-line of inventions that pushed the movie industry forward. The book also highlights individuals who impacted the movie industry through their creativity and innovations.

The book opens with a look back to the Renaissance where the idea of moving pictures was mentioned by Leonardo Da Vinci. It highlights precursors of film as it is known today then tackles the heart of film creation in the late 1800s. The first few chapters showcase the inventions that make movies possible. They address the politics of patents and product usage, both in Europe and in America.

As the book progresses in a linear fashion, decade by decade, it is divided into chapters relating to American cinema in a specific decade followed by a chapter about European and international cinema in the same decade. The chapters begin with a timeline of important events that occurred during the decade, showing readers how filmmaking and film attendance rose and fell in response to world events. Each chapter highlights the popularity of lack of popularity of film during the decade, along with cinematic triumphs and defeats. The chapters highlight filmmakers who came into prominence as well as films that made an impact on the world, either in a positive or negative manner.

According to the book, movies have been in process for centuries, with the invention of film spurring it forward. As film movies became popular with audiences, movie making became a lucrative business. Filmmaking became a career option. At first creators would produce their own movies, directing and producing them. They listened to the audiences to determine what people wanted. They experimented with screen size, subject matter, and technology.

The Hollywood studio system became a major force in the movie industry with its stars and economic backing, first in the United States, then affecting filmmaking around the world. Europe was known for its experimentation with the art form and cinematic movements that made realism and political statements part of the on-screen experience. Third World countries struggled through political oppression and weak economies, persevering to bring stories to the screen that would affect the world.

The book showed the progression from big-screen television to VHS and DVD and finally, digital technology. It demonstrated how films once focused on any type of movement then progressed to stories. Large screen films were once the biggest money makers, but the digital era changed that. It highlighted the dramatic changes the world has seen in the past century, and touched on the changes in film production and cinema displays since the turn-of-the-century. It offered a projection of where filmmaking might be headed in the future on an international level.