“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.

Lacan: Télévision – Going under different names (Television, Psychoanalysis I &II), this film has survived as the only document of Lacan on film, the only record of the once-notorious lecture style that the analyst showcased at his infamous seminars in Paris during the late '60s to early '70s. Organized by October magazine and the French psychoanalytic journal Ornicar?, and took place at Cooper Union, an art school in lower Manhattan.

Introduced by Kate McGowan course leader of the Critical Theory MA at Manchester Metropolitan University.