Politics of Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Politics of Cinema

Aaron & Isaac

Tv & Film

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/20d. Total Eps: 100

Films are cultural artifacts. There is a political and artistic message in every one and we're here to document. On each episode we pick a film; sometimes current and sometimes from the riches of world cinema's 100+ year history, and take a deep dive into what the film is really saying about the world. Both overtly and covertly.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

No recent rankings available

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
3 shares
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058110/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
2 shares
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064866/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
2 shares

https://letterboxd.com/AaronSpears/
88 shares
https://letterboxd.com/film/z/
3 shares
https://books.google.com/books/about/Soul_Searching.html?id=l0UGHk2VfJEC
2 shares

https://www.facebook.com/politicsofcinema
88 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 63%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Silencing Opposition in The Act of Killing (2012) & The Look of Silence (2014)

Season 15 · Episode 14

Friday, September 26, 2025 • Duration 01:05:52

After spending a number of episodes in the past, today we're jumping to the 2010's. We're looking at two documentaries from Joshua Oppenheimer; The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014). These docs reveal two different aspects of the chilling aftermath of Indonesia's 1965-66 anticommunist massacres, one looking at the perpetrators and one looking at the legacy of the victims.

We also draw on Vincent Bevins' book The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World for our discussion on how the Washington-backed violence helped install a regime where the perpetrators not only won but shaped the official history ever since. Through state-sponsored propaganda, like Treachery of G30S/PKI (1984), and the active erasure of victims' stories from cultural memory, the truth went largely unaddressed within broader Indonesian society for decades.

What makes these films deeply unsettling isn't just the brutality (although that is unsettling), but also the lessons they carry for the present. The rhetoric of the need to annihilate political opposition, once used to justify state terror in Indonesia, echoes in today's right-wing American discourse, where the constant invocation of civil war and the erasure of history are frighteningly familiar.

Read moreCollapse

The Third Generation (1979) & Other Instruments of State Sponsored Terror

Season 15 · Episode 13

Friday, August 29, 2025 • Duration 48:28

After examining Robert Kramer's Ice (1970) fictionalize America in our last episode, we shift to West Germany to explore another cinematic portrayal of resistance to fascism in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Third Generation (1979). Set against West Germany's postwar society, Fassbinder sharply exposes how insincere revolutionary acts can become hollow gestures, exploited to justify expanded state control and surveillance.

Though rooted in 1979, the film eerily anticipates our contemporary world: a society numbed by constant surveillance, manipulated by capitalist tech moguls profiting from manufactured crises, and how citizens are caught in a struggle against the technocratic elites. Additionally, Fassbinder's overwhelming audio landscape mimics the relentless noise of the modern internet, capturing the exhaustion and confusion of today's digital age.

Drawing connections to our episodes that covered Uptight (1968), Children of Men (2006), and How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022), we ask: what does resistance look like when liberal democracy itself seems to pave the road to authoritarianism? Fassbinder's vision resonates with our current dark historical moment, where our capacity to imagine alternatives is shrinking, and the internet serves as both a battlefield and a drain on the soul.

Read moreCollapse

Commentary Track: Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Season 15 · Episode 4

Friday, October 4, 2024 • Duration 02:09:08

It's our 100th episode and to celebrate we're doing something a little different. This is a syncable commentary of one of the films that inspired this podcast - Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (2018).

Sync up this episode with the film to watch along and hang out with us while we geek out over this brilliant directorial debut and biting social satire.

Read moreCollapse

The Paranoid Lens: Warren Beatty vs Chuck Norris in 1970's Political Thrillers

Season 15 · Episode 3

Friday, September 20, 2024 • Duration 01:12:17

American cinema of the 1970's is generally known as the golden age of the paranoid thirller. Specifically, the paranoid political thriller. The genearl idealism of the 1960's was met with increasing cynicism by the 1970's, but do these films actually go for the politics of the era or are they just dealing with vibes?

In this episode, we focus on two films of the era; The Parallax View (1974) and Good Guys Wear Black (1978). Is it possible that an early Chuck Norris film has more to say about American politics than a Warren Beatty film that was made during the Watergate hearings?

We also briefly discuss a number of other films from the era, just to see if they're providing vibes or real content. Films discussed include; The Day of the Jackel (1973), The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) [see our previous episode], Marathon Man (1976), All the President's Men (1976), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Domino Principle (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), and Cutters Way (1981).

This era also saw a proliferation of Biker films after the box office success of Easy Rider (1969). Two that we discuss because of their Vietnam War connection are (1970) and (1976).

Victim of Subtlety: The Missed Opportunity of Civil War (2024)

Season 15 · Episode 2

Friday, August 16, 2024 • Duration 59:17

When it comes to great political films, subtlety is vastly overrated. Why not go all in and express a point of view? Or better yet, throw in a bunch of competing viewpoints and see how they bounce off each other. Sounds like the recipe for conflict, insight, drama, action-packed set pieces, and maybe a few killer needle drops.

Alex Garland's Civil War (2024) teeters on the edge of greatness, and it's maddening becasue it's so close. On this episode, we argue that this films was just one screenplay draft away from delivering full-on, grimy, 1970s exploitation gold. If only the writers of How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) could have done a polish - or even better, let them direct.

But don't get us wrong, we both enjoyed Civil War. The mere fact that it even nods to an American left (albeit off-screen) is telling; it shows that leftist ideas are creeping back into the cultural consciousness. It's just a bummer that the Portland Maoists and the New People's Army weren't part of the narrative.

Other recommended viewing: Sleeping Dogs (1977) and War Photographer (2001)

Beyond Borders: Joint Security Area (2000) and the Rise of South Korean Cinema

Season 15 · Episode 1

Friday, July 19, 2024 • Duration 01:10:43

On this episode, we take a look at Park Chan-wook's breakthrough film Joint Security Area (2000). Upon release, this film was the highest grossing film at the South Korean box office. Now, in 2024, it ranks at number 65. This really illustrates just how popular cinema is in South Korea.

Along with this film, we discus the rise of South Korean cinema around the world since 2000. From Oldboy to The Handmaiden to The Wailing to I Saw the Devil to Squid Game to Parasite...there's no shortage of dynamite cinema being exported out to the world. Not to mention the global dominance of K-POP.

Read moreCollapse

Culinary Tyranny: Exploring Capitalism, Identity and Authenticity in Pig (2021)

Season 14 · Episode 13

Friday, April 12, 2024 • Duration 01:05:38

On this episode we dive into one of Isaac's favorite films of the 2020's, Michael Sarnoski's Pig (2021). Sure, on the surface it's a simple story of a man who just wants his beloved pig back. But, as Robin and Amir journey through the Portland culinary scene to find said pig, the film explores what it means to live a life true to oneself, the importance of rejecting marketplace expectations, and finding authentic human connections.

Read moreCollapse

Political Vaudeville: FTA (1972), Jane Fonda, and Mobilizing the Military Against Vietnam

Season 14 · Episode 12

Friday, March 8, 2024 • Duration 01:00:02

As we celebrate 3 years of the show, we decided to take a look at one of our favorite eras of American film - the 1970's. We're specifically looking at the Vietnam Anti-War Movement as captured by a fictional film and a documentary; Milestones (1975) and F.T.A. (1972).

On this episode we discuss Francine Parker's documenatry, F.T.A. (1972). Once again, we're also joined by special guest Jim Miller. As we celebrate Parker's film as well as Jane Fonda's career, Jim helps us to tie together alot of threads:

IPC Production Comany - from F.T.A. (1972) to Coming Home (1978) to 9 to 5 (1980)
The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam by Jerry Lembcke
The propaganda of the POW/MIA flag
Jane Fonda's Workout Videos
The Rambo film franchise

In F.T.A., Parker's camera follows the 1971 anti-war, vaudville-style show as the performers entertain over 64,000 troops stationed in Okinawa, Japan, the Philippines, and Hawaii.

Read moreCollapse

The Continuous Process of Becoming: Robert Kramer's Milestones (1975)

Season 14 · Episode 11

Friday, February 9, 2024 • Duration 01:20:46

On this episode we discuss Robert Kramer's experimental opus, Milestones, and are joined by special guest Jim Miller. Jim was an organizer during this period and provides key insights into just what was going on in that space at the same time Milestones is being made. Spoiler - the film is pretty accurate.

Robert Kramer has said that his films would one day add up to a whole. That all his films portray a "consciousness moving through time and place, trying to survive, trying to understand. The continuous process of becoming".

In Milestones we travel around American with 6 storylines and over 50 characters to survey the landscape of post-Vietnam anti-war activists.

Read moreCollapse

Buñuel's Banquet: Feasting on Satire in The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Season 14 · Episode 10

Friday, January 12, 2024 • Duration 52:06

Luis Buñuel was a master at creating lasting images that stay in the viewers brain long after the film is over. He had a career that spanned multiple decades and working in multiple countries, yet he consistantly took aim at political and social elites.

In his 1962 masterpiece, The Exterminating Angel, the acclaimed filmmaker crafts an allegorical comedy that confronts the socio-political realities of Franco's Spain. Infused with a surrealistic touch and a substantial dose of satire, the film allows for a multi-layered interpretation.

Plus, it's just plain funny to watch the rich fall apart and destroy themselves.

Read moreCollapse

Politics of Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Politics of Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

IMDb99+

Other66

Facebook1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

IMDb99+

Other66

Facebook1