Marxism and Film Activism
Screening Alternative Worlds
Edited by Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
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Book Presentation:
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.
About the authors:
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. Lars Kristensen is a Lecturer in Media, Aesthetics, and Narration at University of Skövde. He has published mainly on cross-cultural issues related to Russian cinema and is the editor of Postcommunist Film: Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture (Routledge, 2012) and co-editor, with Eva Näripea and Ewa Mazierska, of Postcolonial Approaches to Eastern European Cinema: Portraying Neighbours On-Screen (I.B. Tauris, 2014).
Press Reviews:
"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
> From the same authors:
Third Cinema, World Cinema and Marxism (2022)
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
Subject: Sociology
Poland Daily (2022)
Economy, Work, Consumption and Social Class in Polish Cinema
Blackpool in Film and Popular Music (2020)
From Kitsch to Cool
Dir. Ewa Mazierska
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
From Self-fulfilment to Survival of the Fittest (2020)
Work in European Cinema from the 1960s to the Present
Contemporary Cinema and Neoliberal Ideology (2017)
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
Subject: Sociology
The Cinematic Bodies of Eastern Europe and Russia (2016)
Between Pain and Pleasure
Dir. Ewa Mazierska, Matilda Mroz and Elżbieta Ostrowska
Red Alert (2016)
Marxist Approaches to Science Fiction Cinema
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Alfredo Suppia
Subject: Genre > Science Fiction
Polish Cinema in a Transnational Context (2014)
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Michael Goddard
Postcommunist Film - Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture (2013)
Moving Images of Postcommunism
Dir. Lars Kristensen
Subject: Countries > Russia / USSR
Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema (2010)
Black Peters and Men of Marble
Crossing New Europe (2006)
Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie
by Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli
The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (2004)
Dreams and Diaries
by Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli
Subject: Director > Nanni Moretti
> On a related topic:
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Documentary Storytelling and the Global Fight for Social Justice
by Caty Borum and David Conrad-Pérez
Subject: Sociology
Contemporary Radical Film Culture (2020)
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Radicalism in American Silent Films, 1909–1929 (2011)
A Filmography and History
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Transnational Cinema Solidarity (2025)
Chilean Exile Film and Video after 1973
Subject: Countries > Latin America
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