Starting off with the big picture, they are presenting the restored version of legendary situationist Guy Debord’s cult film The Society of the Spectacle. This “theoretical post-Marxist film offer[s] extended blocks of text (to be read or heard) about media and spectacle along with clips of movies ranging from silent Russian classics to softcore porn, it isn’t put together to entertain or even to go down easily, but it rarely ceases to be stimulating [and] remains a priceless document” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader).
Next up, in Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End, we are introduced to the dangerously funny cartoonist Mr. Fish as he struggles to stay true to his creativity as his profession is on its way out. Editors previously willing to back controversial work are disappearing as fast as the newspapers which once employed him. Undeterred, Mr. Fish faces his plight head-on and with an abundance of creative energy.
They also urge you to check-out their curated collection “Democracy and Its Discontents.” It has a film for everyone this election season. For the cynics, they have FEED by Kevin Rafferty & James Ridgeway. For Kamala Harris fans, there’s Chisholm ’72 on Shirley Chisholm the first black woman to run for President. And, for socialists, there’s a documentary on Eugene Debs and another on Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, among so many other compelling films.
Society of the Spectacle
Directed by Guy Debord
La Société du Spectacle (Society of the Spectacle) is a black-and-white 1973 film by the Situationist Guy Debord, based on his 1967 book of the same name. It was Debord’s first feature-length film. It uses found footage and détournement in a radical Marxist critique of mass marketing and its role in the alienation of modern society.
Mr. Fish:
Cartooning from the Deep End
Directed by Pablo Bryant
A political cartoonist known for his outrageous and subversive art, Mr. Fish’s work has been published in places such as Harper’s, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and The Village Voice and sites like truthdig.com.
In this intimate and revealing documentary, Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End, we are introduced to the dangerously funny cartoonist as he struggles to stay true to his creativity in a world where biting satiric humor has an ever-diminishing commercial value.
Democracy and Its Discontents
A Curated Collection of Films
What is the “will of the people?” How might it be established, threatened, undermined, expressed, and hopefully secured? These questions and more are explored in OVID’s collection DEMOCRACY AND ITS DISCONTENTS.