What if you could watch Socrates, on film, rehearsing his Socratic dialogues? What if there was footage of Descartes, Thoreau, or Shakespeare as themselves at work and in their daily life? Might we now look at these figures differently, with perhaps a deeper understanding of their work and lives?”

As a guide to critical theory this season is a screening of theory documentaries from the Jacques Lacan’s 1974 television appearance to Zizek’s 2006 documentary Zizek! that follows him across the globe giving a “compelling portrait of an intellectual maverick”. Each documentary will be accompanied with a short introduction to theory given by academics and guest speakers in the field. This season is an attempt at a “beginners guide to critical theory” (a possible alternative title), featuring the works of Lacan, Zizek and Derrida.



Zizek once said “In order to understand today’s world, we need cinema; literally. It’s only in cinema that we get that crucial dimension which we are not yet ready to confront in our reality. If you are looking for what is, in reality, more real than reality itself, look into cinematic fiction.” In this 3 part television series Zizek explains the psychoanalytical approach to filmic theory in a very filmic style, superimposed on film clips and re-enacting famous scenes from movie history this series is a brilliant beginners guide to Zizek’s approach to film.

Introduced by Tony Brown, Head of Research, Manchester Metropolitan University I.O.E.,
Member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Zizek Studies.