The Antipode Film Project

The Antipode Lecture Series has been put on hold for 2020, though we’re planning to return to the American Association of Geographers and Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in 2021. In the meantime, we’re thrilled to be releasing the Antipode Film Project

The journal Antipode celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. As well as publishing a free ebook, Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50, one of the ways in which we are marking the event is the launch of the Antipode Film Project. We have commissioned two publicly accessible online documentaries presenting some of radical geography’s leading thinkers. Speaking to a wide audience, from undergraduate students both within and beyond the discipline, as well as an interested public outside the university, we hope these films will offer cutting-edge resources for interpreting and changing our world.

The Project envisioned short, engaging interventions from scholars “on location”, that is, in a place where they work, that their work speaks to or illuminates in some way. The films would introduce viewers to some of the most provocative thinking from critical geography’s leading lights. They would have attitude and directness, and be timely and pressing – springboards for discussion, inciting conversation. Among other things, we imagined the presenters might meditate on a “live” event or reflect on strategies for change or forms of organisation producing a more socially just and radically democratic life. Or they might comment on the state of radical practice and theory or introduce debate and disagreement around a politically contentious issue.

Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore and David Harvey and the City are documentaries of the highest quality; both will be made available in perpetuity through our websites, AntipodeOnline.org and Wiley Online Library. Professors Ruth Wilson Gilmore and David Harvey were invited by the trustees of the Antipode Foundation to participate in the Project, working with directors Kenton Card and Brett Story respectively to talk about their research and its implications for praxis. We hope that the films will form a distinctive archive, preserved for teachers, researchers, and anyone with an interest in the history, present condition, and future directions of critical geography.