Marxism and Film Activism

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.

"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

• List of FiguresIntroductionEwa Mazierska and Lars KristensenPART I: PAST ACTIVISMChapter 1. Between socialist modernisation and cinematic modernism: the revolutionary politics of aesthetics of Medvedkin’s cinema-trainGal KirnChapter 2. Politics and Aesthetics within Godard’s Cinema    Jeremy SpenceChapter 3. Marker, Activism and Melancholy: Reflections on the Radical ‘60s in the later films of Chris Marker.Jon KearChapter 4. Marx Immemorial: workers and peasants in the cinema of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle HuilletManuel Ramos MartinezChapter 5. In the Heat of the Factory: The Global Fires of The Hour of the FurnacesBruce WilliamsPART II: PRESENT ACTIVISMChapter 6. Contemporary political cinema: the impossibility of passivityWilliam BrownChapter 7. Cultural resistance through film: The case of Palestinian cinemaHaim BresheethChapter 8. The Contemporary Landscape of Video-Activism in BritainSteve PresenceChapter 9. Marxist Resistance at Bicycle Speed: Screening the Critical Mass MovementLars KristensenChapter 10. Tales of a video bloggerMichael ChananChapter 11. Recovering the Future: Marxism and Film AudiencesMartin BarkerNotes on ContributorsIndex