Zizek!, Screening with filmmaker Astra Taylor

Zizek!, Screening with filmmaker Astra Taylor

Please join us for a screening of Zizek!, a feature documentary in which “wild man of theory” Slavoj Zizek obsessively reveals the invisible workings of ideology through his unique blend of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Marxism, and critique of pop culture. Never ceasing to observe the paradoxes that underpin our perception of reality, little goes untheorized over the course of the film, particularly Zizek’s recurring themes — ideology, belief, revolution, and love.
Q & A with filmmaker Astra Taylor to follow.

Tuesday, May 15th, 7:30pm
The Change You Want to See
L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan, J/M/Z to Marcy
Havemeyer St, Store Front, Brooklyn NY 11211

SYNOPSIS
The author of works on subjects as wide-ranging as Alfred Hitchcock, 9/11, opera, Christianity, Lenin and David Lynch, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek is one of the most important—and outrageous—cultural theorists working today. This captivating, erudite documentary explores the eccentric personality and esoteric work of this incomparable academic and writer who has been called everything from “the Elvis of cultural theory” to “a one person culture mulcher”.

Director Astra Taylor follows the charismatic and provocative theorist from Buenos Aires to New York and then on home to Ljubljana and his modest apartment, recording his energetic and provocative psychological observations in lecture halls, restaurants and even in bed. Erudite and outrageous, mixing innovative animations with uncensored interviews, “Zizek!” is both an unforgettable lesson in philosophy and a compelling portrait of an intellectual maverick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zizek
http://www.zizekthemovie.com/press/
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Astra Taylor is a writer and documentarian born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1979 and raised in Athens, Georgia. She has been an instructor in sociology departments at the University of Georgia and State University of New York, New Paltz where she has taught classes on social theory, globalization, and the sociology of film. Her writing has appeared in the Monthly Review, the Nation, and Salon. She was named one of the 25 New Faces to Watch in independent cinema by Filmmaker Magazine in the summer of 2006.

“I saw myself as a lion tamer, or a traffic cop, directing the flow of the conversation. We had 70 hours of footage, and I had to shape it into one theoretical argument. Ultimately, I focused on the intersection between psychoanalysis and capitalism, what it means to live in this society that commands us to enjoy, consume and have wild sex. I thought that argument would resonate with my generation.”