The Best Political Movie Since Z Is Up for an Oscar
We spoke to director Santiago Mitre about his Oscar-nominated film Argentina, 1985, which depicts the struggle to bring the leaders of Argentina’s murderous military junta to justice.
13 Articles by: Ed Rampell
Ed Rampell is an LA-based film historian/critic, author of Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States, and coauthor of The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.
The Anti-Capitalist Origins of the Monopoly Man
The new PBS documentary Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History tells the story of how a board game intended to warn Americans about inequality ended up teaching them how to be good little capitalists.
Ken Burns Talks to Jacobin About the Revolutionary Benjamin Franklin
Ken Burns sat down with Jacobin to discuss his new documentary, Benjamin Franklin, and how the founding father’s spirit of humanitarianism and progress led him to establish America’s first abolitionist society two years before the Declaration of Independence.
Gitmo’s Eternal Inmate Takes Center Stage in Alex Gibney’s New Documentary
Alex Gibney’s The Forever Prisoner reveals the brutal truth behind the nearly two-decade imprisonment of Guantanamo Bay inmate Abu Zubaydah — and the powerful men at the top of the American government responsible for his torture. We spoke with Gibney about it.
Sam Pollard Talks About Arthur Ashe, “The Jackie Robinson of Tennis”
Sam Pollard sat down with Jacobin to discuss his new documentary on black tennis legend Arthur Ashe — the man who broke down the racial barrier in “the sport of kings.”
Oliver Stone Talks to Jacobin About JFK’s Killing
Oliver Stone sat down with Jacobin to discuss JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, his new documentary that exhaustively makes the case that the national security state, including the CIA and FBI, killed John F. Kennedy — not a lone shooter.
Attica Puts Audiences in the Middle of America’s Bloodiest Prison Riot
The new Showtime documentary Attica covers the 1971 riot at the Attica Correctional Facility. Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson talks to Jacobin about the revolt and the state massacre that slaughtered prisoners and ended a movement for human dignity.
Ken Burns Talks to Jacobin About the Revolutionary Muhammad Ali
The new four-part PBS documentary Muhammad Ali, codirected by Ken Burns, examines the life of the legendary boxer and antiwar radical. Burns talks to Jacobin about how a kid from Kentucky named Cassius Clay became “the spirit of the 20th century.”
Ed Asner Was a Proud Socialist in Hollywood
The legendary actor Ed Asner, who died at 91 this week, was an unflagging supporter of socialist causes. And he paid a price for his leftism, taking a stand against Ronald Reagan’s bloody Central America interventions and losing a show over it.
Ken Burns Talks to Jacobin About the Radical Ernest Hemingway
From fighting alongside communists in the Spanish Civil War to backing revolutionaries in Cuba, documentarian Ken Burns shows us the radical side of writer Ernest Hemingway in the new PBS docuseries Hemingway. Burns talks to Jacobin about Hemingway’s forgotten left-wing politics and why the writer still matters.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone Talks to Jacobin About His Life and Politics
We talk to legendary director Oliver Stone about his career, Fidel Castro, Edward Snowden, Vietnam War movies, and why he takes the side of the oppressed in his work.
American Class Struggle on the Big Screen
Barbara Kopple won Oscars for her gripping documentaries, like Harlan County, USA, on the struggles of the labor movement. She sat down with Jacobin to discuss that and her more recent work, as well.
American Factory Co-Director Julia Reichert on Socialism
A day before she quoted Marx at the Oscars, Jacobin briefly chatted with American Factory co-director Julia Reichert about her democratic socialism and long history on the Left.