Volume 24, Issue 2 / February 2020

Reel Politics

Politics and cinema have been bed mates for a very long time. From Soviet Post-Revolution films of the 1920s celebrating Soviet Communism, to propaganda films during war time periods, to leftist films of the US New Deal period, to contemporary, grassroots collectives, like the Montreal based Cinema Politica. In this issue Offscreen spreads its reach far and wide, looking at the politics that often seeps into all types of films, even popular cinema (Quentin Tarantino). Our writers in this issue, Ryan Diduck, Jordan Walker, Daniel Garrett, Miaad Minooie and Douglas Buck look at how films can reflect politics or be read politically, across a variety of fairly recent films and television, including Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time….in Hollywood (by Ryan Diduck), the television landscape of feminism post-Sex and the City (Jordan Walker), contemporary American politics as reflected in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 (by Doug Buck), the depiction of Muslims on Canadian television post-9/11 (by Miaad Minooie) and the status of refugees in the US. With this latter article, Daniel Garrett notes that “Refugees throughout history have been subjected to suspicion and the suspension of civil protections and rights; and yet they often survive to contribute to culture, economy, and politics. It was a painful pleasure to essay the refugee experience in different genres from different countries, with films such as Worlds Apart, Desierto, God’s Own Country and The Insult.” (Donato Totaro, ed….stay safe)