Utopia and Reality

* Scholarship on utopias in film has so far focused exclusively on dystopias - but utopias are about criticizing the present rather than telling a gripping story * Utopia and Reality looks into propaganda and documentary films for depictions of better worlds. * This volume brings together researchers from two fields that have so far seen little exchange - documentary studies and utopian scholarship * Covers a wide range of films from Soviet avant-garde to propaganda videos for the terror organisation ISIS, and from political-activist to ecofeminist and interactive documentaries.

Scholarship on utopias in film has so far focused exclusively on dystopias – but utopias are about criticizing the present rather than telling a gripping story, and Utopia and Reality looks into propaganda and documentary films for depictions of better worlds.Since publication of Thomas More‘s Utopia more than five hundred years ago, there has been a steady stream of literary works that depict a better world; positive utopias in film, however, have been scarce. There is a consensus that utopias in the Morean tradition are not suited to fiction film, and research has accordingly focused on dystopias. Starting from the insight that utopias are always a critical reaction to the deficits of the present, Utopia and Reality takes a different approach by looking into the under-researched area of propaganda and documentary films for depictions of better worlds. This volume brings together researchers from two fields that have so far seen little exchange – documentary studies and utopian scholarship – and covers a wide range of films from Soviet avant-garde to propaganda videos for the terror organisation ISIS, from political-activist to ecofeminist and interactive documentaries.