NETTE, Andrew; DEIGHAN, Samm (eds.)
Revolution in 35mm. Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960-1990
A book that examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990 – a historical period spanning the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of postcolonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. Revolution in 35mm focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy’s Red Brigades. Many of these movements were deeply connected to culture, including cinema, and they expressed their values through it.
Twelve authors, including film critics and academics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the production, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions.
Including over 200 illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements, including feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined alongside grindhouse cinema and lesser-known titles by a host of all-but-forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South that deserve to be rediscovered. [publisher's note]
Contributors: Samm Deighan, Andrew Nette, Christos Tsiolkas, Lee Broughton, Matthew Kowalski, Charles Perks, Uday Bhatia, Scott Adlerberg, Michael A. Gonzales, Kimberly Lindbergs, Robert Skvarla, Annie Rose Malamet, Emma Westwood.
Published by PM Press, 2024
Politics / Film & Video
