Film: Examined Life April 24, 2009

As demonstrated in her 2006 Film Center hit ZIZEK!, filmmaker Astra Taylor knows how to draw maximum wattage from the rock stars of the intellectual world (salon.com described this film as "American Idol, post-Heidigger edition"). Taylor accompanies nine uncloistered philosophers through public spaces that invigorate their ideas: Cornel West compares philosophy to the blues while riding in a Manhattan cab; Martha Nussbaum dicusses the ethical implications of disability on the Chicago lakefront; Kwame Anthony Appiah glosses globalism on an airport people-mover; Peter Singer critiques consumerism while stolling past Fifth Avenue boutiques; and the ever-provocative Slavoj Zizek declares "We need more alientation from nature!" while rummaging through a London garbage dump. Also discoursing are Judith Butler, Michael Hardt, Avita Ronell and Sunaura Taylor.

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