Mixing Pop and Politics is not a history of political music, but a political history of popular music. Spanning the early 50s to the present, it shows how, from doo-wop to hip-hop, punk to crunk and grunge to grime, music has both reflected and resisted the political events of its era.

Mixing Pop and Politics explores the connections between popular music and political ideology, whether that’s the liberation of rock’n’roll or the containment of girl groups, the refusal of glam or the resignation of soft rock, the solidarity of disco or the individualism of 80s pop.

At a time when reactionary forces are waging political war in the realm of culture, and we’re being told to keep politics out of music, Mixing Pop and Politics is a timely, original and joyful exploration of popular music’s role in our society.

For further information visit: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/mixing-pop-and-politics-a-marxist-history-of-popular-music/

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Mixing Pop and Politics is not a history of political music, but a political history of popular music. Spanning the early 50s to the present, it shows how, from doo-wop to hip-hop, punk to crunk and grunge to grime, music has both reflected and resisted the political events of its era.

Mixing Pop and Politics explores the connections between popular music and political ideology, whether that’s the liberation of rock’n’roll or the containment of girl groups, the refusal of glam or the resignation of soft rock, the solidarity of disco or the individualism of 80s pop.

At a time when reactionary forces are waging political war in the realm of culture, and we’re being told to keep politics out of music, Mixing Pop and Politics is a timely, original and joyful exploration of popular music’s role in our society.

For further information visit: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/mixing-pop-and-politics-a-marxist-history-of-popular-music/

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The Radical Film Network was founded in the UK in 2013 when a group of activists, academics and filmmakers met to discuss the ways in which they could support the development, growth and sustainability of radical film culture. Since then, the RFN has grown rapidly, and now consists of over two hundred affiliated organisations from more than thirty countries around the world. Organisations range from artists’ collectives and production companies to archives, co-ops, distributors, film festivals and exhibition venues, as well as a host of other less easily categorised groups. The membership also includes several hundred individuals, including academics, curators, filmmakers, programmers, researchers and writers.

For further information visit: https://radicalfilmnetwork.com/

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https://strengthinnumbersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glasgow-a-history-volume-i-of-vi

The Tenementals socials:

https://www.instagram.com/tenementals/

https://www.facebook.com/tenementals

https://bsky.app/profile/tenementals.bsky.social

https://x.com/tenementals

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https://www.seriousfeather.com/music.html#glasgowhistoryalbum

Glasgow A History (Vol. I of VI) available at:

https://strengthinnumbersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glasgow-a-history-volume-i-of-vi

The Tenementals socials:

https://x.com/tenementals

https://www.instagram.com/tenementals/

https://www.facebook.com/tenementals

https://bsky.app/profile/tenementals.bsky.social

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- Examines key female writers/performers creating UK television comedy

- Updates Kathleen Rowe’s conception of the ‘unruly woman’ to account for changes in contemporary comedy

- Identifies trends in the comedy genre (with a focus on dramedy, sitcoms, and semi-autobiographical/confessional comedy)

- Explores the complex connection between creator/craft/context, that is, female comedians’ intentions and background (creator), writing and/or performance style (craft), as well as the social, political, and cultural conditions in which their series were made (context)

This book explores female authorship in UK television comedy, with a focus on British and Northern Irish writers/performers. More specifically, it examines comedy texts produced between 2010 and 2020, a period marked by a proliferation of female-centric and female-created comedy. In the following order, comedians Julia Davis, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Caitlin/Caroline Moran, Michaela Coel and Sharon Horgan will be analysed as key case studies.

Drawing from these case studies, the book has two objectives. First, it seeks to update Kathleen Rowe's concept of the 'unruly' woman, shifting the emphasis from visibility and performance to the labour and contexts behind on-screen portrayals. Building on Rowe’s existing scholarship, the book introduces the term ‘fastidious’ to describe how comedians display delicacy, precision, and control over their carefully crafted TV series. Secondly, the book aims to extend this concept to British and Northern Irish TV writers/performers who have been either overlooked or examined within broader transnational projects. In doing so, it ‘reclaims’ the authorship of women from the UK.

For further information visit: https://tinyurl.com/mr2sd7ak

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https://www.seriousfeather.com/music.html#owlofminerva

https://strengthinnumbersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glasgow-a-history-volume-i-of-vi

The Tenementals socials:

https://x.com/tenementals

https://www.instagram.com/tenementals/

https://www.facebook.com/tenementals

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Capitalism: A Horror Story: Gothic Marxism and the Dark Side of the Radical Imagination

What does it mean to see horror in capitalism? What can horror tell us about the state and nature of capitalism?

Blending film criticism, cultural theory, and philosophy, Capitalism: A Horror Story examines literature, film, and philosophy, from Frankenstein to contemporary cinema, delving into the socio-political function of the monster, the haunted nature of the digital world, and the inescapable horror of contemporary capitalist politics.

Revitalizing the tradition of Romantic anticapitalism and offering a “dark way of being red”, Capitalism: A Horror Story argues for a Gothic Marxism, showing how we can find revolutionary hope in horror- a site of monstrous becoming that opens the door to a Utopian future.

For further information visit:

https://repeaterbooks.com/product/capitalism-a-horror-story-gothic-marxism-and-the-dark-side-of-the-radical-imagination/ 

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Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/10S0JCoRJ7tFjX4j33IcSD?si=Dx3VEdLfQUu2iI1Xa43h9w&nd=1&dlsi=1a546069d4524166

Socials: @tenementals

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Overview

Introducing the key concepts and thinkers within the Marxist tradition, Marxism Goes to the Movies demonstrates their relevance to film theory and practice past and present.

Author Mike Wayne argues that Marxist filmmaking has engaged with and transformed this popular medium, developing its potential for stimulating revolutionary consciousness. As the crisis of capitalism deepens, this history and these resources are vital for a better future. Marxism is one of the few approaches that can bring together political, economic, formal and cultural analysis into a unified approach of studying film, and how films in turn can help us understand and even critically interrogate these forces. The book examines how filmmakers, who have been influenced by Marxism, have made some of the most significant contributions to film culture globally, and provides historical perspective on the development of Marxism and film. Each chapter covers a broad theme that is broken down into sections that are cross-referenced throughout, providing helpful navigation of the material.

Clear and concise in its arguments, this is an ideal introduction for students of Marxism and film, inviting readers to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the subject.

For more information: https://tinyurl.com/3sf9j762

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Overview

'AI in the Movies' analyses film representations of artificial intelligence, from their first emergence in the 1950s up to 2020. These strong or general artificial intelligences take different forms: some are digital AIs, some robot AIs, some move between material and digital forms. Some are indistinguishable from humans, and some have no material existence at all.

Analysis of these representations demonstrates filmmakers eroding the division between human and AI, by presenting character doubles, narrative parallels and eventually, identities in which the biological and artificial overlap and intersect in new hybrid forms.

The book identifies the aspects of AI science that fascinate filmmakers and outlines the key themes and tropes in AI film, including parent-child relationships, the female robot, human-AI doubles, parallels and hybrids, and AI death and mortality.

For more information: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-ai-in-the-movies.html

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“Bram's political and social commentary is not just entertaining, but also horrifically coherent.” - Darren McGarvey (Orwell Prize 2018, author of Poverty Safari and The Social Distance Between Us)

“For a book which explores such dark pathways it glows with the light of intelligence.” - Ewan Morrison (multi award-winning novelist, author of Tales From The Mall and Nina X)

“The Darkest Timeline gazes unflinchingly into the broken mirror of contemporary culture... 'Timely' feels too small a word for the task this book sets itself — a bracing and essential read.” - Kieran Hurley (playwright and screenwriter, Beats and Adults)

For more information: https://www.revolpress.com/the-darkest-timeline

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Crafted by the talented duo Muayad and Rami Alayan, A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM is an eerily suspenseful and touching story told through the eyes of a young girl, exploring the strength of memory and the power of love.

For more information: https://wellingtonfilms.co.uk/a-house-in-jerusalem

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This book conceives events of dissent as the public manifestation of counter-narratives that articulate advocacy for policy change. It focuses on the material and virtual manifestation of protest events and the media response to them, associated with three active social movements – Reclaim These Streets, Extinction Rebellion, and Black Lives Matter. In doing so, the text sheds light on how different political orientations within the media articulate the representation of events of dissent manifest by these groups, and how this results in significantly different opinion-forming statements on the issues behind those movements, as well as how this reflects mediated assessment of the responses of politicians, the public, and emergency service responses to protest events. Furthermore, it will explore the role of the Internet in the organisation of protest events and their part in the formation of networks of resistance, enabling the roll out of events with a global reach – demonstrated, more recently, by protests across many European cities against the war in Ukraine.

This timely and significant book will appeal to scholars of and those interested in events tourism, protest, political communication, and media, amongst others.

For more information: https://www.routledge.com/Protests-and-the-Media-A-Critical-Event-Studies-Exploration-into-the-Future-of-Protest/Kubiliute-Lamond/p/book/9781032608211

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The disclosures of WikiLeaks and Assange from 2010 onwards ignited a firestorm of controversy and a relentless ongoing pursuit by the most powerful Empire on the planet.

‘THE TRUST FALL: JULIAN ASSANGE’ examines the meaning and significance of the insights that WikiLeaks shared with the world, the resulting behaviour of the governments involved, the extraordinary personal risk taken by Assange, and the wider fundamental issues around press freedom that affect all of us and our right to know.

Filmed over two years on three continents and in ten cities, the film features an array of luminaries including Daniel Ellsberg, John Pilger, Tariq Ali and Chris Hedges, with the insights of experts including Jennifer Robinson, Jill Stein, Stefania Maurizi and Nils Melzer, in addition to reflections of Assange’s family including Stella Assange, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton.

Examining the motives of this peace activist and innovator, this astounding, shocking and inspiring film invites viewers to embark on a journey of understanding, where the circumstances are unprecedented, and the destination unexpected.

For more information: https://www.thetrustfall.org/

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For more information: https://www.americonned.com/

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Driven by a commitment to document the impact of deindustrialisation on working class communities in Northeast England in the 1970s and 1980s, Tish Murtha used her camera to expose societal inequality. She felt she had an obligation to the people and problems within her local environment, and that documentary photography could highlight and challenge the social disadvantages that she herself had suffered. However, despite early acclaim for her work, she was unable to make a living from photography and died in poverty.

The film is a journey of exploration for Ella Murtha as both daughter and custodian of the Tish Murtha archive, a chance to elevate and preserve a legacy that has been lost and to tell the story of an artist and woman outside of the ‘mother’ that existed for her – or the version of Tish claimed within dominant narratives of the 70s and 80s photography – from the people who knew Tish and the images she left behind.

For more information: https://www.modernfilms.com/tish

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We discuss freedom of speech, the Espionage Act, Belmarsh Prison, US extradition and his Final Appeal at the Royal Courts in London on February 20th-21st 2024.

Journalism is NOT a crime: https://freeassange.org/

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In his new book, Finkelstein focuses his keen forensic eye on the canonical texts of identity politics. After methodically parsing them, Finkelstein concludes that they're lacking in intellectual substance. Instead, the real purpose of identity politics is to derail a class-based movement bent on radical change.

In a long, scathing chapter, Finkelstein analyses the cult surrounding Barack Obama, which he reveals as the ultimate product of identity politics. The first Black president rose to power by having, in Obama's own cynical words, "pulled off a neat trick" by standing for nothing except his skin colour. If "woke" liberals embraced him, it was because, beneath his hip veneer, Obama was a sure bet to prop up the corrupt status quo.

Along the way, Finkelstein recalls his own life in radical politics and his close encounters with cancel culture, which left him unemployed and unemployable. He situates his personal story within broader debates on academic freedom and poignantly concludes that, although occasionally bitter, he harbours no regrets about the choices he made.

"If I can't laugh, I don't want your revolution," Finkelstein declares. Laced with his signature wit, readers of this book will get to laugh along with him.

For more information: https://sublationmedia.com/product/ill-burn-that-bridge-when-i-get-to-it/

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For further information: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-george-a-romero-s-independent-cinema.html

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The book presents political and aesthetic analyses of folk horror's uncanny landscapes and frightful folk. It places canonical films like Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) and The Wicker Man (1973) in a new light and expands the canon to include films like the sci-fi horror Doomwatch (1970-72) and the horror documentary Requiem for a Village (1975) alongside filmmakers Ken Russell and Ben Wheatley.

A series of engrossing chapters by established scholars and new writers argue for the uniqueness of folk horror from perspectives that include the fragmented national history of pagan heresies and Celtic cultures, of peasant lifestyles, folkloric rediscoveries and postcolonial decline.

For more information: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526164926/

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Roger Stahl, a professor of communication at the University of Georgia, has studied the 'military-entertainment complex' for a decade. He's aware that the military housed an office for doing business with Hollywood and TV, but the scholarly consensus was that it was a small-time operation that perhaps influenced a couple hundred films. Then he learns of two British researchers, Matthew Alford (University of Bath) and Tom Secker (freelance journalist), who obtained tens of thousands of pages of internal U.S. Defense Department and CIA documents through Freedom of Information Act requests. The documents confirm that the security state has exercised direct editorial control over at least 1,000 feature films and another 1,000 television shows.

For more information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11841496/

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For more information: https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-godard-cinema-2022-online

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For more information: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-happy-endings-in-hollywood-cinema.html

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In 1933, a group of communist and socialist inmates of Borgenmoor Concentration Camp first performed what became known as Die Moorsoldaten/Peat Bog Soldiers. This EP consists of two versions of the song - in English and German - that seek to both reimagine and blast the song into the future.

For more information: https://strengthinnumbersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/peat-bog-soldiers-ep

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For more information: https://mubi.com/en/gb/films/werner-herzog-radical-dreamer

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This film takes a look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, exploring the iconoclastic freedom and exuberance of the 60s, a time of intergenerational conflict and sexual turmoil that reflects on the present day.

Featuring revealing interviews with all the main players and unseen archive released for the first time, this documentary explores the creative musical genius of Jones, key to the success of the band, and uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.

More information here: https://www.magpictures.com/thestonesandbrianjones/

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For more information: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Politics-Hollywood-Film-Scott/dp/0748640231

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Drive-in cinemas flourished in 1950s America, in some summer weeks to the extent that there were more cinemagoers outdoors than indoors. Often associated with teenagers interested in the drive-in as a 'passion pit' or a venue for exploitation films, accounts of the 1950s American drive-in tend to emphasise their popularity with families with young children, downplaying the importance of a film programme apparently limited to old, low-budget or independent films and characterising drive-in operators as industry outsiders. They retain a hold on the popular imagination.

The Drive-In identifies the mix of generations in the drive-in audience as well as accounts that articulate individual experiences, from the drive-in as a dating venue to a segregated space. Through detailed analysis of the film industry trade press, local newspapers and a range of other primary sources including archival records on cinemas and cinema circuits in Arkansas, California, New York State and Texas, this book examines how drive-ins were integrated into local communities and the film industry and reveals the importance and range of drive-in programmes that were often close to that of their indoor neighbours.

For more info visit: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/drivein-9781501365928/

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Over recent weeks, we've been exploring cinema, not only as a playground for entertainment, escapism, and egos but also as an economic, political, and ideological battleground for social class, gender, ethnicity, technology, and, as we're going to discover in this evening's episode, sexuality.

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• Examines issues around ageing femininities using a range of case studies of films and actresses, both known and forgotten
• Establishes the case for the importance of the character actress at the heart of the history of British cinema
• Provides an overlooked historical context for considering ageing femininities in contemporary film
• 
  

Actresses like Maggie Smith, Cicely Courtneidge and Sybil Thorndike have established the enduring appeal of the ageing actress in British film. Historicising and contextualising this archetypal figure, this book establishes a taxonomy of female ageing in British cinema, from the 1930s to the present day.

Arguing that the prevalence of various iterations of the character actress is essential in understanding the nature of British cinema, specifically in how it has developed to define itself against Hollywood, employing archetypes which draw on well-established mythologies regarding ageing femininities. The book centres on the analysis of a broad range of films, such as Blithe Spirit (1945), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), as well as the work of selected actresses, considering them within the context of the broader historical factors which impacted on ageing femininities, including the Second World War, the post-war settlement, the Welfare State, and the implications for the women’s movement as a whole.

For further information: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-spinsters-widows-and-chars.html

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Justin has never agreed with the exalted claims made for the film: for him, The Wicker Man’s force as a creative endeavour is marred by poor lighting, poor cinematography, poor direction… and Robin Hardy’s subsequent films have done nothing to change Justin’s opinion. But then his view is coloured by the fact that the film robbed him of his father, his home and arguably his mother too. His brother Dominic has been more distanced, his experience of the film filtered through the story of its survival and subsequent status as a cult film. For him, The Wicker Man is not so much a film as a shattered vase, a set of fragments: the stories that make up the film’s legend, the benighted production, the brutal editing, the buried negative, the lost scenes, the disavowal by British Lion, the critical reception, financial failure and then – against all odds – the later revival. Now, for the first time, the newly uncovered sources complete the picture, taking us into the creativity channelled through the difficult birth of the film. Now, the sons can ask: what, if anything, was Robin Hardy’s creative contribution to The Wicker Man?

The story, according to screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, comes from the desire to make a horror film by renewing the genre: focusing on a sacrificial victim being tricked into assenting to his fate. Our reading says that the key to the story is that Shaffer parlayed his own relationship with his long-time partner Hardy into this project, as a trickster’s farewell. The Wicker Man is fundamentally about Summerisle and Howie (Shaffer saw their final confrontation has the apex of a love affair); it is thus the story of Shaffer and Hardy; the story of the privileged Lord and the uninitiated Outsider; of the Executioner and the Sacrificed.

This is the story of creativity as the wrestling between two men. Breaking rules, rejecting industry standards; taking risks despite difficult conditions, even among the makers: here are hallmarks of independent, adventurous, radical filmmaking. The Wicker Man story is an unparalleled guide to how independent film gets made. The creativity of this film is due to its unique status in time as an independent film: for one moment together in their careers, Shaffer and Hardy operated ‘outside the majors’ which Shaffer had already conquered and Hardy never would.

Our film tells the story of this ‘operation’ – a moment in time that can only make sense if we understand who each man was in terms of their relative importance to one another as friends and partners, in terms of their career arcs. Our film posits that the endurance of the film depends on a unique correlation that is at the heart of the story told by The Wicker Man. Without this correlation – which the Wicker Man audience will understand for the first time – there is no enduring power through the decades. Describing this dynamic between these two men takes us to the beating heart of whatever creativity shines out from the film.

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For more information: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kubrick-Control-Authority-Independence-Working/dp/1802078568

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• Analyses Britain’s contested understandings of its past, present and future
• Examines the various ways recent mainstream films have approached the concept of nationhood
• Explores the ways in which the contest of ideologies always at work within media representations has played out post-2016
• Focuses on historical and contemporary drama films, with each chapter offering detailed readings of either an individual film, or a pair of films

British Cinema and a Divided Nation examines representations of the nation found within contemporary British cinema, against a backdrop of rising political tensions and deepening social divisions following the ‘Brexit’ referendum of June 2016. Exploring ways in which the contest of ideologies within media representations has played out post-2016, the book identifies divisions within society that have been given narrative shape and cultural form within recent British films. With case studies of major films such as Mary Queen of Scots, Peterloo, Darkest Hour, Sorry We Missed You and Downton Abbey, this book questions whether we are seeing the negotiation of a new relationship with the wider world, or simply a re-iteration of a long-standing British, or English, understanding of national identity.

More information at: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-british-cinema-and-a-divided-nation.html

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• Provides a detailed study of the making of The Angels’ Share
• Offers a wider analysis of Loach’s films and his film-related political activities
• Draws upon research from the British Film Institute's Loach Archive
• Demonstrates how a detailed knowledge of film making practices and methods can enhance film analysis and criticism

Tracking Loach presents a ground-breaking and unique contribution to the study of cinema. Archibald was granted unprecedented access to observe one of world cinema’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers, Ken Loach, while he was making the 2012 feature The Angels Share, which received The Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

David Archibald is Professor of Political Cinemas at the University of Glasgow. His previous publications include The war that won’t die: The Spanish Civil War in Cinema (2012), and many essays on film and film culture. He is the Series Editor of the Edinburgh University Press Political Cinemas Series, sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Class and Culture and Media Practice and Education, and is a member of the Radical Film Network international steering committee. David is currently making films with Núria Araüna Baró under the banner ‘Ragged Cinema’, writing songs for and performing with The Tenementals, and is researcher-in-residence at The Revelator Wall of Death.

More info at: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-tracking-loach.html

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