Film and the Anarchist Imagination
Expanded Second Edition
2nd Edition
Published on 26. October 2020
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-252-04333-8 (ISBN)
Description
Hailed since its initial release, Film and the Anarchist Imagination offers the authoritative account of films featuring anarchist characters and motifs. Richard Porton delves into the many ways filmmakers have portrayed anarchism's long traditions of labor agitation and revolutionary struggle. While acknowledging cinema's predilection for ludicrous anarchist stereotypes, he focuses on films that, wittingly or otherwise, reflect or even promote workplace resistance, anarchist pedagogy, self-emancipation, and anti-statist insurrection. Porton ranges from the silent era to the classics Zero de Conduite and Love and Anarchy to contemporary films like The Nothing Factory while engaging the works of Jean Vigo, Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmueller, Yvonne Rainer, Ken Loach, and others. For this updated second edition, Porton reflects on several new topics, including the negative portrayals of anarchism over the past twenty years and the contemporary embrace of post-anarchism.
Reviews / Votes
"So many mainstream movies are ultimately propaganda: propaganda for consumerism, violence, outdated gender relations, and the capitalist system. This book reminds us that films can also be rebellious, aiming not to reinforce but undermine the status quo. In this updated version of his original classic, Richard Porton traces the evolution of anarchist ideas and their influence on cinematic form and content, exploring a wide range of expressive work designed to provoke, inspire, and confound. A welcome and compelling celebration of a subversive and still-evolving genre."--Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age"Although I'm a feminist, but not a self-identified anarchist-feminist, Richard Porton's Film And The Anarchist Imagination has inspired me to study the texts and films he brilliantly analyzes, even revisit my own from his unique perspective."--Lizzie Borden
Praise for the previous edition:
"Porton's astute and engaging study provides a needed corrective to the 'laughably unsubtle' movies that recycle stereotypes and half-truths."--Catherine Saint Louis, New York Times Book Review
More details
Edition
Second Edition, Expanded Second Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04333-8 (9780252043338)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard Porton is an editor at Cineaste and has taught film studies at the College of Staten Island, Hunter College, Rutgers University, and New York University.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Anarchism and Cinema: Representation and Self-Representation
2 Cinema, Anarchism, and Revolution: Heroes, Martyrs, and Utopian Moments
3 Anarcho-Syndicalism versus the "Revolt against Work"
4 Film and Anarchist Pedagogy
5 The Elusive Anarchist Aesthetic
Afterword (2019)
Notes
Index
Introduction
1 Anarchism and Cinema: Representation and Self-Representation
2 Cinema, Anarchism, and Revolution: Heroes, Martyrs, and Utopian Moments
3 Anarcho-Syndicalism versus the "Revolt against Work"
4 Film and Anarchist Pedagogy
5 The Elusive Anarchist Aesthetic
Afterword (2019)
Notes
Index