Within Our Gates Episode 1 - Liberal Struggle Sessions: An analysis of Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, Israelism and Dahomey
Release Date: 01/24/2025
70's Class Struggle: Analyzing Paul Schrader's Blue Collar w/ Jared Ball and Jared Ware
Within Our Gates
Peace Comrades! For this episode I am joined by two great guests who I plan to have here regularly to discuss Paul Schrader's 1978 film, Blue Collar starring Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel. Jared Ball is a professor of communication studies and Africana / Black Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Ball is also host of the podcast and a co-founder of Jared Ware is the co-host of the anti-imperialist podcast , and also the host their . We take a deep dive into Schraders film, with a strong emphasis of the history that lies within the film,...
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Black Hollywood's Sins w/ Marcus Pinn
Within Our Gates
This week I have my dear friend Marcus Pinn from the longstanding film blog with me. Marcus and I have a more freewheeling talk focused around written pieces that come from the both of us, one is Marcus's review of the film and the other is my critique from a few years ago of the film . Where they connect is Marcus's (on-point) analysis that Black Hollywood has entered a period of "Get Out-Sploitation" films, and how Sinners, amongst others, fits the mold. This is a necessary convo where we unpack whats been happening, and the pernicious character of this crop of Black Hollywood. To get a...
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Coppola's The Conversation w/Yasmin Nair
Within Our Gates
This week I'm happy to have Yasmin Nair back with me to talk about Francis Ford Coppola's classic film The Conversation. The idea came to us after the recent passing of Gene Hackman and both of us speaking about the respect we have for much of the work Hackman did as an actor over the years. It led us to one of his finer films, The Conversation, which is also one of Coppola's very best works. In our investigation about the film, we dig into conversations around the surveillance state, the American obsession with privacy, the character of the American businessman and much more. It’s a rich...
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The Cinematic Dialectic. Paul McIsaac on his work with Robert Kramer.
Within Our Gates
Very special episode this go' round. I have with me Paul McIsaac one of the principal actors in the cinema of the late great Robert Kramer. I take a tour with Paul not only about his work with Kramer, but on the radical tendencies of the 60's, how radical artists looked to integrate with the movement, the different tendencies of the "New Left" and the postmortem that followed which created rich works. All of this is done in an effort to understand the social context of which Kramer's films was made, and what we can learn from these truly significant contributions, and we get to learn from one...
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Black Noir 92 Part II, Goin' Deep Cover w/ Adam Thomas
Within Our Gates
Peace Comrades! For this episode we conclude our Black Noir 92 double bill with Bill Duke's Deep Cover. Joining me again is Adam Thomas, and we dig into Duke's then timely work about the myths of the drug trade. Deep Cover is a fascinating work as it deals with not only with the issues fake war, but also the complications of capitalist ascension for non white folks. It also has one of the more fascinating depictions of Jewishness and how it pertains to whiteness ever depicted through the character of David Jason played by Jeff Goldblum, and we dig into that. We also give that era of Larry...
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Within Our Gates - The Encampments w/ Kei Pritsker and Ben Becker
Within Our Gates
Peace Comrades! Super excited for a special episode of Within Our Gates. Joining me is Kei Pritsker and Ben Becker, two of the makers of the very important and timely documentary a film which tells the tale of student uprisings across the country in protest to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The Encampments is currently playing in theatre's Nationwide and I encourage everyone to see it as it sets the record straight and fights the media propaganda which looked to depict the student encampments as acts of terror and not as acts of principled protests. Kei, Ben and I have a really in depth...
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Sean Baker and The Golden Elevator Ruse w/ Skinner Myers
Within Our Gates
Peace folks. Excited to once again be in conversation with an old friend, Filmmaker Skinner Myers. We talk this time about the state of independent film, Sean Bakers recent Oscar win, and his statement about indie film and figures like Baker represent a pernicious category indie movie making that is still fundamentally aligned with the imperialist project. We also touch on our experiences as micro-budget free range filmmakers, and the conundrums that currently exist. Looking forward to hearing folks on thoughts on this one! Leave' em in the comments! - Tumes To get a jump on the shows a week...
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The Communist Arts, Exploring Alexander Bogdanov's Art and the Working Class w/ Taylor Genovese
Within Our Gates
Extremely honored this week to have Taylor Genovese from to talk about a truly special text, Alexander Bogdanov's . Art and the Working Class is a rare text that we are lucky Iskra has taken on the task of translating and doing an edition for todays reader. This book has massive utility as discussions around class struggle have become once again prevalent and questions of how does the artist situate themselves within the struggle towards awakening the revolutionary consciousness of the working class remain of high importance. Equally as interesting as the text is Bogdanov himself, a...
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Black Noir '92 Part 1, Digging into One False Move w/ Adam Thomas
Within Our Gates
Peace Comrades. For our next episode we have Adam Thomas joining for what is the first part of a 2 part series of episodes called Black Noir '92 where we dig into two Black American Film Noirs that hold interesting analysis on American culture in what is supposes to be "The End of History" when it comes to Liberal Democracy. Our first film is One False Move (1992) Directed by Carl Franklin. It stars Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, and Michael Beach. One False Move is a bit of a cult legend of a film and Adam and I dig into the meat of the film, what it has to say about Race...
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Theory Corner - Towards a Revolutionary Cinema
Within Our Gates
For the first episode of Within Our Gates Theory Corner I take a dive into the structure and inspirations for my new framework of this podcast. I touch on why Third Cinema still matters, Walter Rodney's thoughts around Marxism as methodology, Clyde Taylor's intervention on aesthetics and what does this all mean for the artist who aims to make art a revolutionary weapon. Texts discussed/referenced: Toward a Third Cinema by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino Marxism and Africa by Walter Rodney The Mask of Art by Clyde Taylor The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter...
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