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In Theses on Feuerbach, Marx writes, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world differently; the point is to change it.” This collection examines how filmmakers have tried to change the world by engaging in emancipatory politics through their work, and how audiences have received them. It presents a wide spectrum of case studies, covering both film and digital technology, with examples from throughout cinematic history and around the world, including Soviet Russia, Palestine, South America, and France. Discussions range from the classic Marxist cinema of Aleksandr Medvedkin, Chris Marker, and Jean-Luc Godard, to recent media such as 5 Broken Cameras (2010), the phenomena of video-blogging, and bicycle activism films.
"This is an excellent collection of penetrating scholarly treatments, signifying a Renaissance in the study of how activist cinema has reflected Marxist themes and influences.The whole volume is strongly influenced by contemporary French philosophers, Jacques Rancière and Alain Badiou, by the dialectic between theory and praxis, by the dialectic of activism borne of theory and theory catching up with activism, and by the dialectic of ideological sophistication and broad popular impact." · Dennis Rothermel, California State University, Chico
"An excellent and overdue (i.e., not just timely) contribution. An important source of new ideas and perspectives, filled with ideas and questions to debate" · John Hutnyk, Goldsmiths, University of London
Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. She has authored nearly twenty monographs and edited collections, including Work in Cinema: Labor and Human Condition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), European Cinema and Intertextuality: History, Memory, Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), and Jerzy Skolimowski: The Cinema of a Nonconformist (Berghahn, 2010). She is a principal editor of the journal Studies in Eastern European Cinema.
List of Figures
Introduction
Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
PART I: PAST ACTIVISM
Chapter 1. Between socialist modernisation and cinematic modernism: the revolutionary politics of aesthetics of Medvedkin’s cinema-train
Gal Kirn
Chapter 2. Politics and Aesthetics within Godard’s Cinema
Jeremy Spence
Chapter 3. Marker, Activism and Melancholy: Reflections on the Radical ‘60s in the later films of Chris Marker.
Jon Kear
Chapter 4. Marx Immemorial: workers and peasants in the cinema of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
Manuel Ramos Martinez
Chapter 5. In the Heat of the Factory: The Global Fires of The Hour of the Furnaces
Bruce Williams
PART II: PRESENT ACTIVISM
Chapter 6. Contemporary political cinema: the impossibility of passivity
William Brown
Chapter 7. Cultural resistance through film: The case of Palestinian cinema
Haim Bresheeth
Chapter 8. The Contemporary Landscape of Video-Activism in Britain
Steve Presence
Chapter 9. Marxist Resistance at Bicycle Speed: Screening the Critical Mass Movement
Lars Kristensen
Chapter 10. Tales of a video blogger
Michael Chanan
Chapter 11. Recovering the Future: Marxism and Film Audiences
Martin Barker
Notes on Contributors
Index