What Film Is Good For

Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Mike Figgis

Introduction: Film Ethics as Delivering the Goods
Martin P. Rossouw and Julian Hanich

PART ONE. ADAPTIVE GOODS
1. . . . A Portal to Another World: On Cinema, Climate Change, and a Good Apocalypse
Jennifer Fay
2. . . . Scaling Down: On the Unsustainable Pleasure of Large-File Streaming
Laura U. Marks
3. . . . It's Invaluable: On Film Spectatorship in the Era of Covid-19
Sarah Cooper
4. . . . Stabilities and Mobilities: On the Generic Values of Emplacements, Displacements,
and Outplacements
Timothy Corrigan

PART TWO. EMPATHETIC GOODS
5. . . . Lies, Loops, or Liberation: On the Dis/Obedience of Feeling More
Michele Aaron
6. . . . Public Engagement: On Postcolonial African Cinema's Critical Value
Litheko Modisane
7. . . . Shedding Light on Abject Lives: On Global Cinema as Ethical Art
Seung-hoon Jeong
8. . . . Empathy: On Its Limitations and Liabilities
Malcolm Turvey
9. . . . Political Impact: On the Societal Vibrancy of Film
Jens Eder

PART THREE. SENSTITIVE GOODS
10. . . . Moral Reflection: On the Reflective Afterlife of Screen Stories
Carl Plantinga and Garrett Strpko
11. . . . Challenge and Discomfort: On Situated Elitist Pleasures in Art and Indie Film
Geoff King
12. . . . Heterocosmic Connections: On the Many Worlds and World Values of Cinema
Daniel Yacavone
13. . . . Depth of Experience: On Early Phenomenology and the Value of Boredom in the Cinema
Christian Ferencz-Flatz
14. . . . Striking Beauty: On Recuperating the Beautiful in Cinema
Julian Hanich

PART FOUR. REVIVING GOODS
15. . . . Wondering Offscreen: On Cinema's Transformations of Our Relation to the Unseen
Jaimie Baron
16. . . . Coming to Wonder: On Cinema's Renewal of Vision
Catherine Wheatley
17. . . . Moral Improvement: On How Watching Films Might Make Us Better People
Thomas E. Wartenberg
18. . . . Cinematic Ethics: On Film as Transformative Experience
Robert Sinnerbrink
19. . . . Spiritual Exercises Before a Screen: On "Film as Philosophy" and Its Transformational
Ethics
Martin P. Rossouw

PART FIVE. COMMUNAL GOODS
20. . . . Remembrance and Reflection: On Social Justice Cinema in the #BlackLivesMatter Era
Maryann Erigha Lawer
21. . . . Making Movie Generations: On the Cultural Work of Hollywood Remaking
Kathleen Loock
22. . . . Reaching Unlettered Audiences: On Global Blockbuster Cinema and Its Oral Affinities
Sheila J. Nayar
23. . . . Love of Community and Reality: On André Bazin and the Good of Cinema
Dudley Andrew

PART SIX. MEDIAL GOODS
24. . . . Projection and Protection: On Cinemagoing as Playing Hide-and-Seek with Reality
Francesco Casetti
25. . . . An Animated and Animating Medium: On Hegel,Adorno, and the Good of Film
Nicholas Baer
26. . . . The Bigger Picture: On Watching Films on a Cinema Screen
Martine Beugnet
27. . . . Quality Time: On Resisting What's Next, or Staying with the Credits
Tiago de Luca

PART SEVEN. UNSETTLED GOODS
28. . . . Wanton Destruction: On Cinema's Antisocial Thrills
Adrian Martin
29. . . . Alienating Interventions: On What the "Bad" in David Lynch's Films Is "Good" For
Annie van den Oever and Dominique Chateau
30. . . . Dangerous Situations: On Whether Cinema Is Poisonous
Michel Chion
31. . . . Good for Nothing? On How Films Help Us through the Night
Tom Gunning
32. . . . Medium-Sized Matters: On Whether Cinema Has Made Any Difference
Mark Cousins

Afterword by Radu Jude
List of Contributors
Index