Political cinema


Political cinema, in the narrow sense, refers to cinema products that portray events or social conditions, either current or historical, through a partisan perspective, with the intent of informing or agitating the spectator.
Political cinema exists in different forms, such as documentaries, short films, feature films, experimental films, and even animated cartoons.

Concept

In the narrow sense of the term, political cinema refers to films that do not hide their political stance. In this sense, they differ from other films not because they are political, but because of the way in which their politics is presented. As such, a film does not necessarily have to be pure propaganda to be considered 'political cinema'.
The broader meaning of 'political cinema' is argued to be that "all films are political;" even films that are ostensibly 'apolitical' and escapist, merely promising 'entertainment' as an escape from everyday life, can be understood as fulfilling a political function. The authorities in Nazi Germany, for instance, knew this very well and organized a large production of deliberately escapist films. In other 'entertainment' films, such as westerns, the ideological bias is evident in the distortion of historical reality. A "classical" western would rarely portray black cowboys, although there were a great many of them in the American frontier. Hollywood cinema, which can be understood as the dominant industry of cinema, was often accused of misrepresenting black, female, gay, and working-class people. More fundamentally, not only are the contents of individual films political, but the institution of cinema itself can also be taken as political as well. A huge number of people congregate, not to act together or to talk to each other, but to sit silently, after having paid for it, to be spectators separated from each other. Guy Debord, a critic of the 'society of the spectacle', for whom "separation is the alpha and omega of the spectacle," was therefore also violently opposed to cinema, even though he would make several films portraying his ideas.
In order to differentiate between the narrow and broad notions of 'political cinema', film scholar Ewa Mazierska suggested to divide all such films into the categories of conformist or oppositional and marked or unmarked:
  • Conformist films "accept the political status quo;" while oppositional films reject it.
  • Marked political films are willing to reveal to their viewers the party/ideology "they serve"; while unmarked films prefer to hide it.
From this point of view, it is the oppositional and marked political films that the most viewers regard as 'political', as discussions about politics in film typically single out these two categories.

History

Cinema, World War I and its aftermath

Before World War I French cinema had a big share of the world market. Hollywood used the collapse of the French production to establish its hegemony. Ever since it has dominated world film production not only economically but has transformed cinema into a means to disseminate American values.
In Germany the Universum Film AG, better known as UFA, was founded to counter the perceived dominance of American propaganda. During the Weimar Republic many films about Frederick II of Prussia had a conservative nationalistic agenda, as Siegfried Kracauer and other film critics noted.
Communists like Willi Münzenberg saw the Russian cinema as a model of political cinema. Soviet films by Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov and others combined a partisan view of the bolshevist regime with artistic innovation which also appealed to western audiences.

National Socialism

has never been able or willing to face her responsibility as a chief propagandist for National-Socialism, i.e., Nazism. Almost unlimited resources and her undeniable talent led to results, which, despite their hideous aims, still fascinate some aficionados of film. While there is much controversy around her work, it is generally accepted that Riefenstahl's main commitment was to filmmaking, rather than to the Nazi Party. Proof of this might be seen by the portrayal of Jesse Owens' victory in her film about the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Olympia, and in her later work, mostly on her photographic expeditions to Africa.
The same is certainly not true of the violent anti-Semitic films of Fritz Hippler. Other Nazi political films made propaganda for so-called euthanasia.

Third Cinema

Recent films

Especially in the last decades of the 20th century, many filmmakers considered focusing on remembrance of and reflection upon major collective crimes such as the Holocaust, slavery and disasters such as the Chernobyl disaster to be their political and moral duty.

Globalization and related world issues

Political cinema of the 21st century seems to focus on controversial topics such as globalization, AIDS, and other health-care concerns, issues pertaining to the environment, such as world energy resources and consumption and climate change, and other complex matters pertaining to discrimination, capitalism, terrorism, war, peace, religious and related forms of intolerance, and civil and political rights, as well as other human rights.

Forms

The form has always been an important concern for political filmmakers. While some, like pioneering Lionel Rogosin, argued that radical films, in order to liberate the imagination of the spectator, have to break not only with the content but also with the form of Dominant cinema, the falsely reassuring clichés and stereotypes of conventional narrative film making, other directors such as Francesco Rosi, Costa Gavras, Ken Loach, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee or Lina Wertmüller preferred to work within mainstream cinema to reach a wider audience.
The subversive tradition dates back at least to the French avant-garde of the 1920s. Even in his more conventional films Luis Buñuel stuck to the spirit of outright revolt of L'Âge d'or. The bourgeoisie had to be expropriated and all its values destroyed, the surrealists believed. This spirit of revolt is also present in all films of Jean Vigo.

Selected filmography

TitleYearDirectorCountryType of filmNotes
The Birth of a Nation1915D. W. GriffithUnited StatesFeature
Stachka 1925Sergei EisensteinSoviet UnionFeature
Bronenosets Potyomkin 1925Sergei EisensteinSoviet UnionFeature
Padenie dinastii Romanovykh 1927Esfir ShubSoviet UnionFeature
Chelovek s kino-apparatom 1929Dziga VertovSoviet UnionDocumentary
Mädchen in Uniform 1931Leontine SaganWeimar RepublicFeature
Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? 1932Slatan DudowWeimar RepublicFeature
Misère au Borinage 1934Joris Ivens and Henri StorckBelgiumShort documentary
Triumph des Willens 1935Leni ReifenstahlNazi GermanyPropaganda
Der ewige Jude. Ein Filmbeitrag zum Weltjudentum 1940Fritz HipplerNazi GermanyPropaganda
Strange Victory1948Leo HurwitzEast GermanyDocumentary
Salt of the Earth1954Herbert BibermanUnited StatesFeature
Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse 1954East GermanyKurt MaetzigFeature
Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse 1955East GermanyKurt MaetzigFeature
On the Bowery1956Lionel RogosinUnited StatesDocufiction
The Cool World1964Shirley ClarkeUnited StatesFeature
Obyknovennyy fashizm 1965Mikhail RommSoviet UnionDocumentary
La battaglia di Algeri 1966Gillo PontecorvoItaly
Algeria		Feature
Terra em Transe 1967Glauber RochaBrazilFeature
La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se fair 1967Jean-Luc GodardFranceFeature
Titicut Follies1967Frederick WisemanUnited StatesDocumentary
La hora de los hornos 1968Fernando SolanasArgentinaFeature
In the Year of the Pig1968Emile de AntonioUnited StatesDocumentary
Teorema 1968Pier Paolo PasoliniItalyFeature
if....1968Lindsay AndersonUnited KingdomFeature
Z1969Costa-GavrasAlgeria/FranceFeature
Yawar Mallku 1969Jorge SanjinésBoliviaFeature
Burn! 1969Gillo PontecorvoItaly/FranceFeature
Salesman1969Albert and David Maysles
Charlotte Zwerin		United StatesDocumentary
Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto 1970Elio PetriItalyFeature
Le Chagrin et la Pitié 1970Marcel OphülsFrance
West Germany
Switzerland		Documentary
Ghoroub wa Shorouq 1970Kamal El SheikhEgyptFeature
Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? 1970Rainer Werner FassbinderWest GermanyFeature
Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt 1971Rosa von PraunheimGermanyDocumentary
Wanda1971Barbara LodenUnited StatesFeature
La classe operaia va in paradiso 1971Elio PetriItalyFeature
Μέρες του '36 1972Theo AngelopoulosGreeceFeature
Il Caso Mattei 1972Francesco RosiItalyFeature
Sambizanga1972Sarah MaldororDemocratic Republic of the CongoFeature
La Société du Spectacle 1974Guy DebordFranceDocumentary
Angst essen Seele auf 1974Rainer Werner FassbinderWest GermanyFeature
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975Chantal AkermanBelgium
France		Feature
Karnak1975Ali BadrakhanEgyptFeature
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma 1975Pier Paolo PasoliniItaly
France		Feature
All the President's Men1976Alan J. PakulaUnited StatesFeature
Harlan County, USA1976Barbara KoppleUnited StatesDocumentary
Yarınsız Adam 1977Remzi Aydın JöntürkTurkeyFeature
Satılmış Adam 1977Remzi Aydın JöntürkTurkeyFeature
Yıkılmayan Adam 1978Remzi Aydın JöntürkTurkeyFeature
Baara 1978Souleymane CisséMaliFeature
Reds1981Warren BeattyUnited StatesFeature
The Wave1981Alex GrasshoffUnited StatesFeature
Yol 1982Şerif Gören
Yılmaz Güney		TurkeyFeature
Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community1984Greta SchillerUnited StatesDocumentary
Nineteen Eighty-Four1984Michael RadfordUnited KingdomFeature
Shoah1985Claude LanzmannFranceDocumentary
Camp de Thiaroye 1988Ousmane Sembene
Thierno Faty Sow		SenegalFeature
American Dream1990Barbara KoppleUnited States
United Kingdom		Documentary
JFK1991Oliver StoneUnited StatesFeature
In the Name of the Father1993Jim SheridanUnited StatesFeature
Land and Freedom1995Ken LoachUnited Kingdom
Spain
Germany
Italy
France		Feature
Lumumba2000Raoul PeckFrance
Germany
Belgium
Haiti		Feature
Intimacy2001Patrice ChéreauFrance
United Kingdom
Germany
Italy		Feature
Jang Aur Aman 2002Anand PatwardhanIndiaDocumentary
Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra, Fascism2003Suma JossonIndiaDocumentary
Fahrenheit 9/112004Michael MooreUnited StatesDocumentary
Memoria del saqueo 2004Fernando SolanasArgentinaDocumentary
Darwin's Nightmare2004Hubert SauperAustria
France
Belgium		Documentary
500 Years Later2005Owen Alik ShahadahUnited Kingdom
United States		Documentary
Syriana2005Stephen GaghanUnited StatesFeature
The Road to Guantánamo2006Michael Winterbottom
Mat Whitecross		United KingdomDocudrama
The Last Communist2006Amir MuhammadMalaysiaDocumentary
The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez2006Heidi SpecognaSwitzerlandDocumentary
An Inconvenient Truth2006Davis GuggenheimUnited StatesDocumentary
Persepolis2007Marjane Satrapi
Vincent Paronnaud		France
Iran		Feature
Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide2006Louie LawlessCanadaDocumentary
Sicko2007Michael MooreUnited StatesDocumentary
What Would Jesus Buy2007Morgan SpurlockUnited StatesDocumentary
The World Without US2008Mitch Anderson and Jason J. TomaricUnited StatesDocumentary
Religulous2008Larry CharlesUnited StatesDocumentary
Milk2008Gus Van SantUnited StatesFeature
Capitalism: A Love Story2009Michael MooreUnited StatesDocumentary
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein2009Nicolas Rossier
David Ridgen		United StatesDocumentary
The Yes Men Fix the World2009Andy Bichlbaum
Mike Bonanno
Kurt Engfehr		United StatesDocumentary
Motherland2010Owen Alik ShahadahUnited StatesDocumentary
The Black Power Mixtape 1967–19752011Göran Hugo OlssonSwedenDocumentary
The Ides of March2011George ClooneyUnited StatesFeature
ToryBoy The Movie2011John WalshUnited KingdomDocumentary
2016: Obama's America2012Dinesh D'SouzaUnited StatesDocumentary
No2012Pablo LarraínChile
France
United States		Feature
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology2012Sophie FiennesUnited KingdomDocumentary
America: Imagine the World Without Her2014Dinesh D'Souza
John Sullivan		United StatesDocumentary
Spotlight2015Tom McCarthyUnited StatesFeature
Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party2017Dinesh D'Souza
Bruce Schooley		United StatesDocumentary
The Death of Stalin2017Armando IannucciUnited Kingdom
France
Belgium		Feature
Death of a Nation2018Dinesh D'Souza
Bruce Schooley		United StatesDocumentary
Fahrenheit 11/92018Michael MooreUnited StatesDocumentary
Vice2018Adam McKayUnited StatesFeature
Friend of the World2020Brian Patrick ButlerUnited StatesFeature
The Hunt2020Craig ZobelUnited StatesFeature
Infidel2020Cyrus NowrastehUnited StatesFeature
Trump Card2020Dinesh D'Souza
Debbie D'Souza
Bruce Schooley		United StatesDocumentary
Absolute Proof2021Brannon Howse
Mike Lindell		United StatesDocumentary
Don't Look Up2021Adam McKayUnited StatesFeature
2000 Mules2022Dinesh D'SouzaUnited StatesDocumentary
Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea2023Tony OlmosUnited StatesFeature