Nomadic filmmaking Political cinema in the 21st century

This dissertation investigates the history, methods, and linkages of political filmmaking committed to a cinema that challenges inequalities in access and allocation to cultural and material resources. It goes on to propose a theory and practice for contemporary political filmmakers who create cinema to oppose injustice in an increasingly globalized, media-dominated, and interconnected world. Through an analysis of two key moments in the history of political cinema, Argentina’s Third Cinema in the 1960s and the LA Rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s, this study explores political cinema’s conflictual relationship with dominant media culture over onscreen representation. An investigation of how these political film movements created, distributed, and exhibited their films is paired with film theory to demonstrate how those filmmakers fostered a radical consciousness and politicization among their viewers. The analysis carries into the present and develops a theory of nomadic political filmmaking as a fluid and inclusive approach to storytelling that can be used in service of populations who dominant cinema generally renders invisible. Works of political cinema embodying nomadic filmmaking techniques are analyzed to demonstrate the potential applications of this practice. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implementation of nomadic filmmaking theory to the author’s feature-length documentary and attempts to illustrate how nomadic cinema can assist political filmmakers who intend to subvert exclusive social, cultural, and economic borders.