While many of the DVD’s I received from Hollywood studios in conjunction with NYFCO’s 2011 award meeting held last December sit collecting dust on a shelf beneath my television, real film pleasure in recent months has been delivered in the form of documentaries very much in tune with my own unrepentant Marxist sensibilities. In some ways, I am their ideal “market” and only look forward to the opportunity to spread the word among the politically committed readers of my film reviews.
Now joining The Robinson Trilogy and The Forgotten Space is Art is … the Permanent Revolution opening today at the Quad Cinema in New York. To get straight to the point, this is the first film to really get to the heart of the matter of the connection between art and politics, a question that has absorbed me ever since I joined the Trotskyist movement in 1967. For those familiar with Leon Trotsky’s political career, you will of course recognize that this was a question that preoccupied him as well. One of the major obstacles to my getting involved with a revolutionary organization was what can only be described as a prejudice against what I viewed as “propagandistic” art. Paul Marcus, one of the three artists profiled in this truly remarkable work, has a wry take on this question. He says that some of the greatest art in history was propaganda, explaining that most art through the modern era was trying to sell Christianity. What’s wrong with selling another message, like peace or social justice? It’s certainly much more feasible than getting into Heaven. And more necessary. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/art-is-the-permanent-revolution/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
