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Film and TV

Chernobyl: An Environmental Catastrophe Caused by Stalinism

In the early hours of April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 of the Pripyat nuclear power plant in Ukraine—then part of the USSR—blew up. The HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” shows what caused the disaster: Stalinism.

Óscar Fernández

June 10, 2019

“We’re Americans”: Class and the State in Jordan Peele’s “Us”

"Us" sets us up for an analysis of class society. Where does it deliver and where does it fall short? Spoiler Alert!

Tatiana Cozzarelli

April 25, 2019

The Fear of Trotsky Is a Fear of the Masses

The literary critic Warren Montag, a professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, was among the hundreds of intellectuals who signed a letter of protest against the Netflix series “Trotsky.” In this essay, he explains how traditional anti-Semitic tropes were always used against Leon Trotsky and are being recycled now by the Putin regime.

Warren Montag

March 11, 2019

As “Black Panther” Wins Awards, Fight to Free Black Panthers Continues

We must remember and fight to free the real Black Panthers who are still locked up.

Julia Wallace

February 27, 2019

Nancy Fraser, Fredric Jameson and More Join Trotsky’s Grandson in Repudiating Netflix’s “Trotsky”

#TrotskyVersusNetflix: Academics, writers, journalists and political activists repudiate the mini-series “Trotsky”, available on Netflix.

Left Voice

February 20, 2019

Black Radicalism on Screen: “The Hate U Give”

It is not every day that the music of Tupac Shakur and the politics of the Black Panthers are harmoniously woven into a tale about a modern black family. But in a society still marred by racial and class inequality, normalcy isn’t an option for black Americans like the Carters, the protagonists of “The Hate U Give.”

Thaddeus Greene

November 9, 2018

On Spike Lee’s Silence

In his new film “BlacKkKlansman,” Spike Lee uses footage from last year’s deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville. But the film says nothing about how the police watched white supremacists to attack counter-protestors. Who is Lee protecting?

Zack Haber

September 8, 2018

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 2: The Rise of the Right and the Resistance

Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is the depiction of a far-off and dystopian future, but its depictions of misogyny, gender essentialism, and religious fundamentalism hit way too close to home. Season two continues to develop the structure and oppression of the fictional nation of Gilead, but it also starts to depict the beginnings of a growing—and necessary—political resistance.

Francesca Gomes

August 22, 2018

Who are the Trotskyists of Babylon Berlin?

Someone must have been telling lies about Leon Trotsky, as the German TV series Babylon Berlin only features ahistorical pseudo-Trotskyists.

Nathaniel Flakin

April 9, 2018