How might cinema make revolution and mobilize the masses? In
socialist China, the film exhibition network expanded from fewer
than six hundred movie theaters to more than a hundred thousand
mobile film projectionist teams. Holding screenings in improvised
open-air spaces in rural areas lacking electricity, these roving
projectionists brought not only films but also power generators,
loudspeakers, slideshows, posters, live performances, and mass
ritual participation, amplifying the era’s utopian dreams and
violent upheavals. Cinematic Guerrillas is a media history of
Chinese film exhibition and reception that offers fresh insights
into the powers and limits of propaganda. Drawing on a wealth of
archives, memoirs, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, Jie Li
examines the media networks and environments, discourses and
practices, experiences and memories of film projectionists and
their grassroots audiences from the 1940s to the 1980s. She
considers the ideology and practice of “cinematic
guerrillas”—at once denoting onscreen militants, off-the-grid
movie teams, and unruly moviegoers—bridging Maoist iconography,
the experiences of projectionists, and popular participation and
resistance. Li reconceptualizes socialist media practices as
“revolutionary spirit mediumship” that aimed to turn audiences
into congregations, contribute to the Mao cult, convert skeptics of
revolutionary miracles, and exorcize class enemies. Cinematic
Guerrillas considers cinema’s meanings for revolution and nation
building; successive generations of projectionists; workers,
peasants, and soldiers; women and ethnic minorities; and national
leaders, local cadres, and cultural censors. By reading diverse,
vivid, and often surprising accounts of moviegoing, Li excavates
Chinese media theories that provide a critical new perspective on
world cinema.
General
| Imprint: |
Columbia University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
November 2023 |
| Authors: |
Jie Li
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
312 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-231-20626-6 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
0-231-20626-7 |
| Barcode: |
9780231206266 |
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