In late 2020, during the dark days of pandemic lockdown and a global universe plunged into a shared crisis devoid of unanimity, the subject of impending anniversaries arose. It was then, in a gesture of optimism for an unknown future, that the idea was hatched for an FQ dossier dedicated to the then-impending ten-year mark to commemorate the 2011 uprisings known as the Arab Spring.
When I was growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, the combination of cultural censorship by the Islamic Republic and the ban on foreign imports stunted any prospects for global cinephile development. With cinemas shuttered, VHS bootlegging thrived but was largely focused on Bollywood’s tackiest melodramas. During any rare evening broadcast of an English-language film on state television, scenes deemed “non-halal” would abruptly transition into large pixelated forms instead of being spliced out altogether.
Mark Fisher and Rob White debate Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises: is it a radical or reactionary film?
Mark Fisher looks back at the time-traveling thriller Source Code and its nightmare vision of the present.
Rob White interviews Patricio Guzmán about, Nostalgia for the Light his latest film exploring the aftermath of Chile’s 1973 coup d’état
Mark Fisher looks back at the thought-provokingly ambivalent depiction of technology in the 2004 I, Robot
Mark Fisher reviews Lynne Ramsay’s film adaptation of Lionel Schriver’s novel about teenage murder, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Paul Julian Smith writes about the Guadalajara International Film Festival, discussing The Prize and Windows to the Sea
Megan Ratner reviews the new film from Mia Hansen-Løve, Goodbye First Love, a story about adolescent loss and creative awakening with a strong autobiographical component.
We are extremely sorry to announce that Ernest “Chick” Callenbach passed away peacefully, April 17, at home in Berkeley. Film Quarterly’s founding editor, Chick steered the journal from 1958 to 1991 (joining the editorial board thereafter) and was also editor of the University of California Press’s cinema studies list of books. In his dual role, he was a major influence on the development of film culture and film study in the U.S. and beyond. A highly influential figure in ecology and natural history as well, he was the author of Ecology: A Pocket Guide and the landmark novel Ecotopia. The loss is a profound one for all of us at the Press. An obituary will be published in the Summer issue of Film Quarterly. Read the LA Times’ obituary here.