Chris Robé
Chris Robé is a professor of film and media studies. His articles on media activism have appeared within journals such as Jump Cut, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Framework and Film History. He has written two books: Left of Hollywood: Cinema, Modernism, and the Emergence of U.S. Left Film Culture (2010) and Breaking the Spell: A History of Anarchist Filmmakers, Videotape Guerrillas, and Digital Ninjas (2017). His forthcoming co-edited collection with Stephen Charbonneau, InsUrgent Media from the Front: A Media Activism Reader, will be published by University of Indiana Press in fall 2020. . He is currently completing a book on state repression, media activism, and grassroots organizing that addresses copwatching, Muslim American resistance, counter-summit protesting, and animal rights activism. He is also conducting archival work on Raymond Williams' work concerning grassroots and alternative media. In his spare time he agitates for his friendly faculty union and plays music. None of his views reflect that of his employer-- thank god.
Film’s Overlooked Histories: Charles Burnett and the L.A. Rebellion
The general absence of the L.A. Rebellion from most film history text books and Burnett's relative marginalization within film and media studies speaks to the socio-economic myopia and privileges that define both areas of study.
Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ Warns of a World Where Escape Can Lead to New Forms of Imprisonment
Tarkovksy’s cinema dialogues with the current chaos of rising authoritarian regimes in the West and the threat of nuclear devastation as the United States and North Korea rattle their sabers.
Brush Up on Your Film Studies With ‘Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2’
Scorsese and the World Cinema Project are not only opening up international filmmaking to Western audiences but providing immaculate film quality and history, too.
‘The Watermelon Woman’, or, Whatever Happened to New Queer Cinema?
A disturbing trend is arising; if you want your film to be nominated for the Academy Awards, it cannot potentially offend the sensibilities of the most narrow-minded “gay friendly” viewer.
Documenting the Little Abuses: Copwatching, Community Organizing, and Video Activism
The ascent of affordable video technology and application in community issues such as copwatching assists in propelling movements for self-determination and self-respect.
Enterprising Women and the Femme Fatale of Film Noir
Too Late for Tears and Woman on the Run remind us that today’s financial and gender anxieties have long histories.
‘Disruptive Film’ Creates a Constellation Where the Past and Present Meet
One should approach this collection not unlike how Walter Benjamin approached collecting books: ".... not as dry, isolated facts, but as a harmonious whole..."
Pathological Visions: Desire and Alienation in the Films of the Quay Brothers
Like writers Kafka and Schultz and graphic artists Lem and Borowczyk, the Quays translate the mechanized wonders of modernity as a world of unmitigated absurdity and failure.
The Laboring Body in Dardenne’s Brothers’ ‘Two Days, One Night’
Although one might hesitate to call Two Days, One Night a propaganda film for labor, it nonetheless expresses concern for those who labor by exploring under precarious working conditions.
Jean-Luc Godard: A Montage of Attractions
The montage approach that Jean-Luc Godard celebrates in his films would become the driving force behind Historie(s) du cinéma.