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In recent years, film has been one of the major genres within which the imaginaries involved in mapping the geopolitical world have been represented and reflected upon. In this book, one of America's foremost theorists of culture and politics treats those aspects of the "geopolitical aesthetic" that must be addressed in light of both the post cold war and post 9/11 world and contemporary film theory and philosophy. Beginning with an account of his experience as a juror at film festival’s, Michael J. Shapiro’s Cinematic Geopolitics analyzes the ways in which film festival space and both feature and documentary films function as counter-spaces to the contemporary "violent cartography" occasioned by governmental policy, especially the current "war on terror." Influenced by the cinema-philosophy relationship developed by Gilles Deleuze and the politics of aesthetics thinking of Jacques Ranciere, the book’s chapters examines a range of films from established classics like the Deer Hunter and the Battle of Algiers to contemporary films such as Dirty Pretty Things and the Fog of War. Shapiro’s use of philosophical and theoretical works makes this cutting edge examination of film and politics essential reading for all students and scholars with an interest in film and politics.
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Cinematic Geopolitics
In recent years, film has been one of the major genres within which the imaginaries involved in mapping the geopolitical world have been represented and reflected upon. In this book, one of America’s foremost theorists of culture and politics treats those aspects of the “geopolitical aesthetic” that must be addressed in light of both the post-Cold War and post-9/11 world and contemporary film theory and philosophy. Beginning with an account of his experience as a juror at film festivals, Michael J. Shapiro in Cinematic Geopolitics analyzes the ways in which film festival space and both feature and documentary films function as counter-spaces to the contemporary “violent cartography” occasioned by governmental policy, especially the current “war on terror.” Influenced by the cinema–philosophy relationship developed by Gilles Deleuze and the politics of aesthetics thinking of Jacques Rancière, the book’s chapters examine a range of films from established classics like The Deer Hunter and The Battle of Algiers to contemporary films such as Dirty Pretty Things and The Fog of War. Shapiro’s use of philosophical and theoretical works makes this cuttingedge examination of film and politics essential reading for all students and scholars with an interest in film and politics. Michael J. Shapiro is a Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa, USA. His research and teaching are in the areas of political theory, global politics, and cultural studies. Among his publications are: Methods and Nations: Cultural Governance and the Indigenous Subject (Routledge, 2004) and Deforming American Political Thought: Ethnicity, Facticity and Genre (University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
GLOBAL HORIZONS Series Editors Richard Falk, Princeton University, USA and R.B.J. Walker, University of Victoria, Canada We live in a moment that urgently calls for a reframing, reconceptualizing, and reconstituting of the political, cultural and social practices that underpin the enterprises of international relations. While contemporary developments in international relations are focused upon highly detailed and technical matters, they also demand an engagement with the broader questions of history, ethics, culture and human subjectivity. GLOBAL HORIZONS is dedicated to examining these broader questions. 1. International Relations and the Problem of Difference David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah 2. Methods and Nations Cultural Governance and the Indigenous Subject Michael J. Shapiro 3. Declining World Order Americ