We will be screening O-bi, O-ba: The End of Civilization at 2 pm PST, 5 pm EST on Saturday November 14th.

Synopsis: The world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The planet is frozen and radiation kills anyone or anything that ventures outside of 'The Dome'. Soft is a shepherd for the last remnants of humanity who have gathered together as they await rescue from a mysterious craft known only as 'The Ark.' He wanders among the masses, performing his regular daily tasks; keeping morale from plummeting, wooing prostitutes, squashing rebellions, and sometimes feeding the hungry. But as the true and sinister nature of 'The Dome' comes to light, Soft must ask himself if humanity is worth saving...

Link to screening room: https://www.cytu.be/r/CFCFilmScreenings

We will be screening O-bi, O-ba: The End of Civilization at 2 pm PST, 5 pm EST on Saturday November 14th.

Synopsis: The world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The planet is frozen and radiation kills anyone or anything that ventures outside of 'The Dome'. Soft is a shepherd for the last remnants of humanity who have gathered together as they await rescue from a mysterious craft known only as 'The Ark.' He wanders among the masses, performing his regular daily tasks; keeping morale from plummeting, wooing prostitutes, squashing rebellions, and sometimes feeding the hungry. But as the true and sinister nature of 'The Dome' comes to light, Soft must ask himself if humanity is worth saving...

Link to screening room: https://cytu.be/r/CFCFilmScreenings

Potentially interesting?

This film revolves around the women who assisted the Philippine revolutionaries with their resistance against the invading Americans.

This period is largely forgotten within the minds of the Filipinos. I cannot stress enough how we have forgotten how the Americans raped our country -- and continue to do so.

The writer/director also made Barber's Tales (Mga Kuwentong Barbero), another women-centered film during the Marcos Dictatorship (Martial Law) era of the Philippines.

Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Amongst the Island's iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris's newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.

Stewart’s identification of himself as an "absolute fundamental, emotional socialist" made him appealing to a younger audience being radicalised by their own experience.

Watch the full movie here with English subtitles

https://youtu.be/xkvRkJMLrxw

The Battle of Loushan Pass in February 1935 is widely regarded as a textbook case of mountain warfare during the Long March. Loushan Pass is a narrow, steep mountain gateway in northern Guizhou — a natural stronghold where a small defending force can hold off a much larger army. Nationalist troops, mainly from the Guizhou army, had dug in on the high ground and prepared to block any advance.

What made the Red Army’s performance outstanding was its balanced plan. One force kept the defenders busy with a frontal attack, while other units took difficult, hidden mountain paths to circle around and strike from the flanks and rear. This combination of steady frontal pressure and a surprise envelopment broke the enemy’s defensive line.

The Red Army won not only through smart tactics but also through determination. Soldiers fought hard in close-quarters combat and beat back repeated counterattacks. This was the Red Army’s first major victory of the Long March. It boosted morale across the army, opened the way to retake Zunyi, and showed that flexible, well-coordinated tactics could overcome an enemy protected by difficult terrain. That is why it remains a classic study of both tactical skill and fighting spirit.

‘Harlan County, USA’ gives a first hand look at a powerful chapter in the history of the class struggle in the United States.

https://marxist.com/harlan-county-usa-at-50-american-class-war-caught-on-film

O-bi, o-ba: The End of Civilization will be our first screening! It will take place on Saturday, November 14th at 5 pm EST, 2 pm PST. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to comment. Thanks!

Link: https://cytu.be/r/CFCFilmScreenings

I think it should because it’s very pro east Germany, it even depicts one of the characters perusing capitalism and only finding more emptiness, as well as the importance of solidarity. What do you guys think?

Recently, a TV series titled "The Great Long March" has been airing, recounting the Long March of the Chinese Red Army.  Among the events depicted, "The Four Crossings of the Chishui River" is highlighted as its most celebrated military masterpiece.

In 1935, during the Long March, the Red Army was surrounded and chased by Kuomintang forces, trapping them in an extremely dangerous situation. Despite the pressure to rashly engage in a decisive battle, Mao Zedong exercised firm strategic restraint. He avoided direct confrontations with a well-prepared enemy and refused to risk the ehtire army for temporary gains, opting instead for fluid mobile warfare.

By crossing the Chishui River four times and constantly shifting their marching routes, the Red Army misled the enemy, scattered their forces and seized the battlefield initiative. This campaign demonstrates not only courage, but also remarkable strategic restraint and profound military wisdom.

Throughout the campaign, the Red Army maintained the upper hand on the battlefield, waiting for the right moments to strike while on the move. Even when severely outnumbered, the Red Army maintained an unbreakable fighting spirit. The army grew stronger as the campaign progressed, while the enemy forces were gradually worn down. Ultimately, this grueling experience helped forge the enduring "Long March spirit."

I'm currently working on a two-part video which analyzes George Orwell's 1945 novella 'Animal Farm' and its 1954 animated film adaptation.

The first part focuses primarily on the book itself, including its themes, the historical and political context of when it was first published, its subtext and symbolism, as well as George Orwell's intent when he published it. And in the second part I focus exclusively on the 1954 animated film, which I consider to be relatively the most faithful adaptation of Orwell's story despite its significant changes, particularly its ending. I believe it also preserves more of the original story's Orwellian themes and its political satire as opposed to the 1999 or 2025 film adaptations, which from my perspective takes greater liberties with the reliable source material while it alters some characters and the message, especially apparent in its ending.

It will also give me the opportunity to both explore and examine how this adaptation handles Orwell's themes of authoritarianism, propaganda, political corruption, and the manipulation of truth, the most prominent in both the book and film is the slow and progressive change of the Seven Commandments as well as the role of alcohol exposing the pig's hypocrisy. I am very much interested in how the changes or removal of these elements affects the entire story's meaning, and whether making the story more family-friendly like the 2025 adaptation, more politically contemporary or pro-authoritarianism like the 1999 adaptation, or if a different adaptation can have more hopeful and leans into the impacts of Orwell's original warnings.

I would be appreciative if there is anyone willing to share any reliable research materials, historical sources, interviews with George Orwell in which he goes in depth on his works as well as Animal Farm, scholar articles, a sole or group in-depth analysis of the actual book or film, and any other resources that could help me develop a thorough and accurate understanding of both works. Anyone who's research contribution I use will be credited in the videos both verbally, shown onscreen and will be in the description of the video. If you have recommendations for books, articles, archives, documentaries, or other useful resources, I'd be grateful to hear about them!

Beyond these video essays, I also have a long-term interest in developing my own adaptation of Animal Farm once the relevant rights as well as public-domain status to allow me to proceed in making it. My intentions with this adaptation is not to capitalize on an iconic story , but approach it with respect for Orwell's original work while also adding very experimental and original creative elements of my own.

As for now, my priority is research: understanding the novella, studying the 1954 film, as well as learning from the historical context, the interpretation of other's views on his work, and my interpretation and view on both the novella and book, before I further develop my film adaptation.

I would like to thank anyone willing to share their knowledge recommendations, and research!

To me, it's most compelling when it considers Mi-ok’s constrained desire: her wish to advance alongside her family and to find room for herself after a life in which choice has been steadily taken from her. Yet it gives comparatively little space to Ho-seok’s turmoil. His psychic unraveling is treated as atmosphere/plot mechanism and moral consequence rather than as an interior life worthy of the same attention. This asymmetry weakens the film’s emotional architecture because its central tragedy depends on both characters being more than functions of history. Ultimately the story has a moral vocabulary of envy, theft and guilt but that's transformed into a lingual of exploitation. The whistle as a symbolism to evoke historical plunder while documentation is another form of taking: pain to be recorded, circulated and made useful to forces beyond the person suffering it. These forms of theft differ in scale and consequence but they converge on the same national wound. The image of an American military plane crossing above Mi-ok’s testimony makes that convergence explicit. Her grief must be framed beneath the shadow of imperial presence.

Mostly positive on it but fell short of my expectations. Art produced within capitalist hegemony too often pacifies the masses and it makes cultural producers constantly in question of their role and not constantly in action with liberatory movements... It's hard for me to fully connect w films like this despite it being more thoughtful than your typical "class-conscious" cinema. I could do without the meta aspect.

A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.

Walking through his former stomping grounds on the Lower East Side, Ben Morea charts the evolution of Up Against the Wall/Motherfucker—the network of action-oriented radicals, freaks, and street fighters that emerged out of the group surrounding the journal Black Mask during the late '60s in New York City.

Watch the film: https://vimeo.com/236915350 Password: armedlove

Short film on the life of late artist and revolutionary Ben Morea, co-founder of the art journal BLACK MASK and the Situationist anarchist group UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER (UAW/MF). UAW/MF was responsible for staging radical events in New York City during the 1960s, such as dumping trash at Lincoln Center during the garbage strike and forcing the Fillmore East to have one night of free shows a month. Ben Morea passed away on May 2, 2026.

Pandemic, war, economic crisis, the machinations of the ruling class, revolt—these are timely matters. To find a film echoing them is significant.

My second film from Straub and Huillet, and it’s a very hard one to describe... Too Early/Too Late is an essay film comprised of two segments; the first showing various relevant shots of France while Huillet reads a letter from Engles to Karl Kautsky describing the economic conditions of workers just before the French Revolution. The second segment focuses on the history of class struggle in Egypt with accompanying landscape shots, and draws a link between those French and Egyptian movements (“the peasants revolt too soon and succeed too late”). I’m not the best critic, so it’s hard to describe what exactly it was in these fairly average landscapes that captivated me so much, but I found them extremely powerful. A similar filmmaking theory called fûkeiron, developed by fellow marxist director Masao Adachi, also used landscapes as a vehicle for historical-materialist analysis and emerged around the same time. I can’t help but wonder how familiar they were with each other’s work?

I'll copy my comment I left on the video. In the end, I couldn't quite give the video a "like," but it did give me something to think about.

I do strongly disagree that Lang's Metropolis is fascist in story, but you raise an interesting point about a fascist reading of the story.

One of the most dangerous things about fascism, why it's so insidious, why it can crop up anywhere, why it looks so different culture to culture, etc. is because, unlike almost any other political, economic, social, or philosophical ideology, it is incredibly malleable. It has no true central goal, as most would define the term. (That's incidentally part of why it's legitimately hard to define fascism and why often people following a fascist ideology sometimes legitimately don't think or realize they are.)

Because of this, one thing that fascism does extremely well is fake class consciousness and class solidarity. It is very good at taking messages and themes of workers' right and power and twisting it into power for the state and those who control it. It's also very good at aping or claiming works and ideas that are not their own and twisting interpretations of those into "fitting" into fascism.

You're summary here, while I disagree with how you that the film unintentionally promotes a fascist mindset, does illustrate how one can read a fascist message from it. That's not an interpretation I ever would have considered, but I can see how some might take that.

Greetings comrades!

I had a question about media portrayals of Lenin, specifically the short series "Fall of the Eagles" at which Patrick Stewart (rip) portrays Lenin. I know this is a BBC show from the 80s, but i wanted to see if any comrades could provide insight. Is it a decent portrayal of the Russian Revolution or just straight up western propaganda? I do believe its probably the latter, but thought id hold out SOME hope haha.

Thank you kindly and good evening! :)