“A documentary essay in the guise of an investigation. The movie is radically democratic.” –The New Yorker

Astra Taylor has become known for her explorations of philosophy, debt and public participation including her documentary films ZIZEK, about the superstar philosopher, and her books Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and the American Book Award winner The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. She’ll discuss the our (mis)understanding of democracy and what it means in 2020 in this conversation with filmmaker and educator Polina Malikin.

About WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?: With deep resonances in this moment of profound political and social crisis, this documentary-essay reflects on a word we too often take for granted. Taylor’s film is an idiosyncratic, philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism’s roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor. Subjects include everyone from Angela Davis to factory workers and asylum seekers. 


Speakers

Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and political organizer whose films include WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?, ZIZEK! and EXAMINED LIFE and books include  The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age (winner of an American Book Award), Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone (Metropolitan Books) and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay,The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition, which will be released this month. She is co-founder of the Debt Collective.

Polina Malikin, former education director of the Citizen Jane and True-False film festivals, teaches digital photography and Cinema and Social Change at Stephens College. She is a former Royce Fellow, an  experimental and documentary filmmaker and the founder of the art gallery/living space NEIGHBORS. Her film CHINA, PORTRAITS, debuted at the Iowa City Experimental Film Festival.

“A documentary essay in the guise of an investigation. The movie is radically democratic.” –The New Yorker

Astra Taylor has become known for her explorations of philosophy, debt and public participation including her documentary films ZIZEK, about the superstar philosopher, and her books Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and the American Book Award winner The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. She’ll discuss the our (mis)understanding of democracy and what it means in 2020 in this conversation with filmmaker and educator Polina Malikin.

About WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?: With deep resonances in this moment of profound political and social crisis, this documentary-essay reflects on a word we too often take for granted. Taylor’s film is an idiosyncratic, philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism’s roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor. Subjects include everyone from Angela Davis to factory workers and asylum seekers.