Films

The revolution introduced me to art, and art, in its own turn, brought me to the revolution.

Sergei Eisenstein

Friday, 01 November 2019 11:25

arise! filmpoem

Written by Mike Quille

in Films

Culture Matters has produced a short film, made by Carl Joyce, of the poem arise! by Paul Summers, which was sponsored by the Durham Miners' Association. You can watch the film for free on Vimeo here or on Youtube here. The film invokes the collective and co-operative spirit of past…

General Election jeremy corbyn Miners' Gala

Monday, 28 October 2019 08:48

Joker: living without class-consciousness and solidarity

Written by Fran Lock

in Films

Fran Lock reviews Joker's treatment of violence, poverty, class, gender and race, and the way it subverts 'one of capitalism's most pernicious fictions' If you want to get ahead in life, just go for it on your own. Facing obstacles? There’s nothing you can’t overcome and put right. You just…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 11 October 2019 16:54

Sorry We Missed You: how capitalism is destroying working-class families

in Films

Written by Mike Wayne

Sorry We Missed You is director Ken Loach’s follow-up to his excoriating I, Daniel Blake which exposed how the welfare system has been turned into an apparatus of punishment and cruel indignity for those without work. It took a film to expose the moral vacuum at the heart of the…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 08 October 2019 15:35

Culture Punch: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and righteous anti-capitalist violence

in Films

Written by Paul Victor Tims

Paul Tims argues that Tarantino's assertion of the value of violence in his latest film has a message for anti-capitalist activists I’m a huge Tarantino fan. You’re shocked, I can tell. Sarcasm aside, regular readers can probably infer from my writing style and thematic preoccupations that I’m equally enthused by…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 07 October 2019 14:26

Noura’s Dream

in Films

Written by Rita Di Santo

Rita Di Santo reviews Noura's Dream After screening at the Toronto Film Festival, French-Tunisian filmmaker Hinde Boudjemaa’s Noura’s Dream had its Middle East premiere at the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt. The film tells the story of a working-class Tunisian woman who has an affair while her husband is…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 10 September 2019 18:09

The film itself is Bait

in Films

Written by Mike Quille

Class conflict, and the various ways class divisions are expressed and resolved in personal relationships, from outright violence to affection and peaceful co-existence, form the central themes of this outstandingly original new film, written and directed by Mark Jenkin. Set in a Cornish fishing village, the story is about the…

Thursday, 23 May 2019 15:31

Young Ahmed: the fear and anguish of a young radical working-class Muslim

Written by Rita Di Santo

in Films

Rita di Santo reviews Young Ahmed, which won the Best Director prize at Cannes recently Like Britain’s Ken Loach, Belgium’s most renowned filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make movies bursting with concern for the struggles of the working class and the most vulnerable in society. Their protagonists often teenagers who…

Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:40

Ken Loach's Sorry We Missed You: the gig economy as agony, not freedom

Written by Dennis Broe

in Films

From Cannes, Dennis Broe reviews Ken Loach’s latest film, about the slow breakdown of a family exposed to the 'freedom' of the gig economy The first scene of Ken Loach’s new film Sorry We Missed You, which premiered at Cannes this week, is a masterful laying out of the job…

Amazon Uber Paul Laverty

Saturday, 12 January 2019 10:22

Roma

Written by Alejandro Hernandez

in Films

Alejandro Hernandez digs out two important and interlinked political backstories from the Netflix movie Roma, about state-sponsored violence against progressive social movements, and how unequal class and gender power relations are expressed in the daily violence against domestic workers' conditions. Recently, Alfonso Cuarón was awarded best foreign language film and…

Thursday, 03 January 2019 18:27

The Student

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Films

Jenny Farrell reviews The Student, a modern Russian film which is now available on DVD. Russian cinema today explores capitalism against the backdrop of a past socialist experience. Open-minded visitors to former socialist states, and particularly to Russia, will come across this living memory and frequently an acknowledgement of the…

soviet cinema Kerebrennikov