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bell hooks is one of America's most accessible public intellectuals. In this two-part video, extensively illustrated with many of the images under analysis, she makes a compelling argument for the transformative power of cultural criticism.

In Part One, hooks discusses the theoretical foundations and positions that inform her work (such as the motives behind representations, as well as their power in social and cultural life). hooks also explains why she insists on using the phrase "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" to describe the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality.

In Part Two, she demonstrates the value of cultural studies in concrete analysis through such subjects as the OJ Simpson case, Madonna, Spike Lee, and Gangsta rap. The aim of cultural analysis, she argues, should be the production of enlightened witnesses - audiences who engaged with the representations of cultural life knowledgeably and vigilantly.

Sections: On Cultural Criticism: Why Study Popular Culture? | Critical Thinking as Transformation | The Power of Representations | Motivated Representations | Why "White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy? | Enlightened Witness | Doing Cultural Criticism Hoop Dreams: Constructed Narrative | Dealing With OJ | Madonna: From Feminism to Conservatism | Spike Lee: Hollywood's Fall Guy | KIDS: Whose Gaze? | Rap: Authentic Expression or Market Construct? | Black Female Bodies: Color Caste Systems | Consuming Commodified Blackness

Duration: 66 Mins
ISBN: 1-893521-41-9
Date Produced: 1997

Transcript

Filmmaker Information
Producer & Director: Sut Jhally
Editors: Mary Patierno, Sut Jhally, Harriet Hirshorn
Editing & Production Assistance by: Sanjay Talreja
Music: Peter Gabriel