FILM SCHEDULE AT THE INSTITUTE FOR THE CRITICAL STUDY OF SOCIETY

SEPTEMBER FILMS

Sept. 13 Zizek
Sept. 20 The Battle of Algiers
Sept. 27 The Power of Community

Sept. 13 Zizek 71minutes
Riding the coattails of one man's eccentric personality, filmmaker Astra Taylor paints a dizzying portrait of renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj ÎiÏek, who embodies his reputation as "the wild man of theory." Frantically trailing Zizek on his travels around the world -- from New York and Buenos Aires to his hometown of Ljubljana -- Taylor captures his analysis of everything in his path, including the innovative thinker's take on himself.

Zizek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-Marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."

Sept 20 7pm The Battle of Algiers 125 minutes

The Pentagon's special operations chiefs have decided to screen The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo's 1965 classic film of urban terrorist insurgency, for Pentagon employees, to see how to deal with the conflict in Iraq.

One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers focuses on the events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly re-creates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French. The violence soon escalates on both sides in this war drama that's astonishingly relevant today. (Handouts for background on the film will be available at the showing)

Sept 27 7pm The Power of Community
75 minutes
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

US Trade Unionism: The Decline Of US Imperialism and the Crisis Of Business Unionism
7-Sept, 10 am-12 noon

Steve Zeltzer  

US capitalism is in a major decline. The imperialist empire is in decline and the US capitalists are now telling the working class they and their children have no future. This will mean a growing internal crisis in US corporate unionism and the crisis in the
SEIU and other unions will spread. This talk will focus on how this crisis will affect the class struggle in the US and internationally.

The Individual under Capitalism  
14-Sept, 10 am-12 noon

Kambiz Sakhai   

Since its inception, Capitalism has always portrayed itself as the defender of the freedom of the individual. This freedom, however, has always been reduced to the right to separate oneself from the society and compete, use, and exploit others. But even within this context it has not been possible for the individuals to experience freedom. Individuals in capitalist society have always been pushed around by hidden forces, i.e. from their unconscious. Obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts, delusions, and hallucinations are only the extreme cases of ordinary behavior under Capitalism.

With the development of capitalism, however, even this abstract and conflictual form of individuality is dismantled. It is replaced by an automaton that behaves according to the dictates of Capital. S/he has become a faceless member of the mass society who suffers from the pathology of normalcy.

In this session we will look into the rise and fall of the so-called autonomous individual in Capitalism. We will also portray an outline of an alternative form of individuality that would emerge in Communism.

Revolutionary Poster Art: A Survey of Political Posters 
21-Sept, 10 am-12 noon

Lincoln Cushing   

Posters have been an essential part of the activist's toolkit ever since 1789, when British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson created the classic broadside showing slaved packed like cordwood in the hold of a ship. This image-rich slideshow will offer an overview of major stages in the evolution of modern political poster art, including the WPA, the Paris general strike of 1968, the antiwar workshops in 1970, the U.S. labor movement, and the images from the Chinese and Cuban revolutions. Fo more about the presenter and these posters, see <www.docspopuli.org> 

Novelty, Creativity, and the rise of Capital 
28-Sept, 10 am-12 noon

John Chung 

"There is no such thing as society, there are only individuals" quipped Margaret Thatcher as she dismantled half a century of state socialism in Great Britain.  In this presentation we will look at the material conditions that gave rise to the creation of the individual, the art form that gave it legitimacy and the relationship between the dynamism of capitalism and the cultural values of creativity, novelty, independance and innovation.