Screening Controversial Cinema
Mark McKenna editor Claire Henry editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:31st Dec '26
£46.99
This title is due to be published on 31st December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£155.00(9781032530222)
This collection offers a wide-ranging exploration of controversial cinema across film history, examining how and why certain films become flashpoints for public debate, regulation, and cultural conflict.
Bringing together over fifty case studies from different periods, national contexts, and genres, the book moves beyond a simple catalogue of scandalous texts to show how controversy emerges through the interaction of films, audiences, institutions, and media discourse. From early censorship battles to contemporary debates around representation, identity, and harm, the volume demonstrates that controversy is not fixed but shaped by shifting social values, political agendas, and technological change. While familiar concerns—sex, violence, religion, and morality—remain central, the collection expands the field to include questions of ideology, race, gender, disability, and ethics.
Designed as a companion to film screenings, each chapter situates its case study within its broader historical and cultural context, encouraging readers to engage critically with challenging material and arguing that controversial cinema provides a powerful lens through which to understand the relationship between film and society. Together the chapters provide a unique resource for a variety of film studies courses.
"Controversial cinema is a minefield but this volume expertly navigates how films surrounded by scandal and storm can be approached with due care and caution without ignoring their explosivity. The editors’ emphasis on controversy as a structural component of cinema gives Screening Controversial Cinema a solid organizational coherence. The range of films selected here is exquisite, from the notorious to the misunderstood, with ample room for films supposedly ‘bad for you’. From Freaks over Jud Süß and Song of the South to A Serbian Film and Civil War, each film is intelligently approached in function of its position as a teachable object of controversy. This is an essential text for film education, a book any instructor will welcome."
- Ernest Mathijs, Professor in Cinema and Media Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
"This volume brings new energy and insight to a thoughtfully curated selection of films that have pressed against dominant codes, norms, and values—and have come to be regarded as controversial texts. Drawing on examples across diverse periods, national contexts, and aesthetic forms, Screening Controversial Cinema examines the historical and political contexts that have shaped these scandalous works, offering a nuanced account of how and why certain films provoke public debate and cultural anxiety."
- Tina Kendall, Associate Professor of Film and Media, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
ISBN: 9781032530208
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
666 pages