Reel to Real: Race, class and sex at the movies (Routledge Classics) - Softcover

Hooks, Bell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415964806 ISBN 13: 9780415964807

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

Movies matter – that is the message of  Reel to Real, bell hooks’ classic collection of essays on film. They matter on a personal level, providing us with unforgettable moments, even life-changing experiences and they can confront us, too, with the most profound social issues of race, sex and class. Here bell hooks – one of America’s most celebrated and thrilling cultural critics – talks back to films that have moved and provoked her, from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction to the work of Spike Lee. Including also her conversations with master filmmakers such as Charles Burnett and Julie Dash, Reel to Real is a must read for anyone who believes that movies are worth arguing about.

About this title

Review

'hooks... makes a compelling case to filmmakers for creating progressive images that 'transform the culture we live in'.' - Los Angeles Times

From the Back Cover

Although it may not be the goal of every filmmaker, most of us learn something when we watch movies. They make us think. They make us feel. Occassionally they have the power to transform lives. In her book Reel To Real, bell hooks talks back to films she has watched, as a way to engage the pedagogy of cinema--the way film teaches its audience.

bell hooks comes to film, not as a film critic but as a cultural critic, fascinated by the issues movies raise--the ways cinema depicts race, sex, and class. Reel To Real not only brings together hooks' classic essays on films such as Paris Is Burning or the infamous "Whose Pussy Is It" essay about Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, but also newer work on Pulp Fiction, Crooklyn and Waiting To Exhale. hooks also examines the world of independent cinema. Here, conversations with filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and Arthur Jaffa are linked with critical essays, including a provocative piece on Larry Clark's Kids, to show the radical possiblity of cinema--that it can function subversively, as much as it functions to maintain the status quo.

In its review of Outlaw Culture, the New York Times wrote of bell hooks: "She brings to the task of cultural criticism an astute eye and courageous spirit..." In Reel To Real hooks enhances our visual experience of movies, enabling us to see in a new way. Her work, like the best films of our time, provoke thought and create a context for dialogue. The essays and conversations collected here bear witness to the passion and pleasure of critical engagement.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0415964806
• ISBN 13: 9780415964807
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320