What makes movies ‘political’, and how is what we watch on the big screen related to what we do online, at the ballot box, and in the street? In other words, How do politics and pop culture shape each other?
Join culture and film critics Chauncey K. Robinson and Michelle P. Kern for a look at movies, Marxism, and the Resistance. Chauncey examines how film can reflect progressive, but also toxic, messaging that both mirrors and influences our society. She also deep dives into how the horror genre has been a source of progressive themes, reflecting the terrors of society in creative and at times brutal ways. Michelle discusses the evolution of political themes in Star Wars, how they’ve been influenced by the events that were contemporary when each series was made, and how they in turn now influence political resistance in current movements. She pays special attention to how push back against the new series reflects social anxieties that persist in U.S. capitalist culture.