Film and Everyday Resistance

Marguerite La Caze (Author)

9780810147454, Northwestern University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2024

192 pages, 12 halftones
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.454 kg

"Marguerite La Caze boldly and lucidly explores different variations on non-violence and its methods of resistance through film, navigating the diverse terrain of documentary and dramatic film, global political acts and their respective historical accounts. This is an excellent addition to the interrelated areas of politics and film-philosophy.”—Kelli Fuery, Chapman University

A philosophical exploration of how modern global cinema represents everyday means of resisting authoritarianism and totalitarianism

VÁclav Havel’s concept of “living within the truth” in an authoritarian regime frames Marguerite La Caze’s readings of international cinema, highlighting forms of resistance in which seemingly pre- or nonpolitical aspects of life—such as professional labor, exile, and truth telling—can be recognized as political when seen against a backdrop of general acquiescence. La Caze’s case studies cross genres, historical eras, and national contexts: the apartheid regime in South Africa, in A Dry White Season; post-Suharto Indonesia, in The Look of Silence; 1980s East Germany, in Barbara; the Chilean military dictatorship, in No; contemporary Iran, in A Separation; and current-day Saudi Arabia, in Wadjda. This book explores the films’ use of image, sound, narrative, and character in dialogue with the work of Simone de Beauvoir, AimÉ Cesaire, Hannah Arendt, Sara Ahmed, and W. E. B. Du Bois to reveal how cinema depicts ordinary people enacting their own philosophies of defiance.