Cinema of/for the Anthropocene: Affect, Ecology, and More-Than-Human Kinship

Cinema of/for the Anthropocene sheds new light on the question of how films can allow us to resituate ourselves within what is known today as the Anthropocene. The authors address this question through a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives, from film and cultural studies, new materialisms, critical posthumanism and animal studies, critical race theory and Indigenous media studies, to gender and sexuality studies, with a primary focus on films produced in the United States and Canada. The volume moves beyond the mere acknowledgment of the devastating damage inflicted during the Anthropocene to think about new ways of inhabiting the world through concepts such as affect, response-ability, and more-than-human kinship. The writers in this collection respond to its invitation by addressing a range of genres and modes, thus complicating the apocalyptic discourses which have typically been central to the studies on the Anthropocene: in addition to dystopian films, the volume discusses animated films, Hollywood biopics, climate change documentaries, experimental film, comedy, horror sci-fi, as well as disease thriller and survival film. Taken together, the chapters offer cross-disciplinary readings of the cinema of/for the Anthropocene, showing ways in which it can help us re-orient our thinking to make sense of the current age and address the planetary-scale environmental catastrophe. This volume will appeal to researchers and students in film studies, cultural studies, and the burgeoning field of environmental humanities. Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Foreword. “Created to Dream”: The Voices and Visions of Cinema of/for the Anthropocene Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Thinking Cinema of/for the Anthropocene: An Introduction The Anthropocene: Too Early, Too Late? Beyond the Apocalypse: Affect, Ecology, and More-Than-Human Kinship Films of/for the Anthropocene Notes Works Cited Part 1: Affect, Ecology, and Pedagogies of Worldly Reciprocity Chapter 2: A Film History of Utter Rebellion: Dewesternizing Film Studies for the Chthulucene Decolonizing the Curriculum Uncontained Digital Archives Kill or Kin? Anti-Colonial Phalke? The Aesthetics of Relationality Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 3: Willful Aesthetics: Pedagogies of Exposure in Animated Short Film Introduction: Responding to Film Exposure and Habituation Willful Aesthetics Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 4: Envisioning Intergenerational Justice: Hope, Despair, and Transformative Action in Climate Change Films Driving Change: Critical Hope, Slow Hope, and Transformative Action Critical Hope and the Courage of Despair: Youth Climate Activism in Jim Rakete’s Now From Hopeful Visions to Actual Change: Engaged Filmmaking and Transformative Action Slow Hope and Voluntary Sufficiency in Being the Change Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 5: Take Back the Walk: Trekking and Female Empowerment in Wild and Tracks Introduction Walking and Trekking as Gendered Practices Women and Adventure Narratives Wild Tracks Conclusion Funding Notes Works Cited Chapter 6: Between Manipulation and Catharsis: Living a Life in the Mediated Anthropocene Introduction Media Life and the Anthropocene Studying (and Living In) Media and the Anthropocene The Truman Show and a Media Life A Life in Media and the Anthropocene: Insights from The Truman Show Conclusions Notes Works Cited Part 2: More-Than-Human Kinship, Hybridity, and Monstrous Alliances Chapter 7: Collaborative Making, Not Taking: Nova Paul Exposes Cinema’s Material Roots Introduction Indigenous-Oriented Objections to the Anthropocene and New Materialisms Exhibiting Cinema’s Material Dynamism: Ngā Pūrākau Nō Ngā Rākau Conclusion Acknowledgement Notes Works Cited Chapter 8: Land Agency and the Animacy of Stories in Danis Goulet’s and Amanda Strong’s Short Films Introduction Wakening Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 9: New Animism and Shamanic Cinema: Human–Animal–Machine Interactions Dreams of Hybridity: Project Nim Shamanic Cinema: Tropical Malady and Gente Pájaro. Che Uñüm Human–Animal–Machine Interactions: Agrilogistics Notes Works Cited Chapter 10: Being (with) Animals: Human–Horse Relations, Gender, and Queer/Trans Embodiment in Barbara Hammer’s A Horse Is Not a Metaphor and Ann Oren’s Passage The Gendering of Animals in Experimental Film Being with Horses in A Horse Is Not a Metaphor Becoming Horse in Passage Conclusion Funding Notes Works Cited Chapter 11: Biological Imagination, Critical Environmentalism, and Anthropocene in Annihilation Introduction The Encounter with the Shimmer: Fluid Nature and “Monstruous” Hybridization The End or Triumph of Nature as Alterity? Diverging Scenarios Between Cinematic Psychodrama and Bodysnatching ... back to the onto-ethical problematic Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 12: Inhabiting a Viral Culture Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited/Consulted Index