Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa
@benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Seattle University. Author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life available from UC Press here:
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520342347/the-celluloid-specimen
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520342347/the-celluloid-specimen
Happy Thanksgiving from a slightly menacing James Cagney!
November 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Happy Thanksgiving from a slightly menacing James Cagney!
One of the few I've read:
November 27, 2025 at 2:28 AM
One of the few I've read:
Those are some good looking pies. (Made by my wife, not me!)
November 27, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Those are some good looking pies. (Made by my wife, not me!)
I've never been much of a horror western guy, but I'm reading Matheson's Shadow on the Sun and it's making me think I might be ready to take the plunge. Any recommendations from folks, either books or films?
November 27, 2025 at 12:27 AM
I've never been much of a horror western guy, but I'm reading Matheson's Shadow on the Sun and it's making me think I might be ready to take the plunge. Any recommendations from folks, either books or films?
Here, large groups of desperate animals, such as cats, rats, kites, seagulls, etc., is one way of visually representing climate change as such. The increasing depiction of swarms of animals in contemporary wildlife documentaries speaks to this changing status of animals in the Anthropocene.
November 26, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Here, large groups of desperate animals, such as cats, rats, kites, seagulls, etc., is one way of visually representing climate change as such. The increasing depiction of swarms of animals in contemporary wildlife documentaries speaks to this changing status of animals in the Anthropocene.
In "From Cat to Clowder" I argue that Kedi is caught between lovingly depicting individual cats and staving off a recognition of them as clowders (groups of cats). Climate change will cause the population of certain highly adaptable animals to balloon, as they fill in for other species going extinct
November 26, 2025 at 4:50 AM
In "From Cat to Clowder" I argue that Kedi is caught between lovingly depicting individual cats and staving off a recognition of them as clowders (groups of cats). Climate change will cause the population of certain highly adaptable animals to balloon, as they fill in for other species going extinct
I watched All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022) twice in the past two days. I feel that in many ways it's the film I was trying to unearth in my writing about Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016). An ambivalent attempt to document the monstrous changes in animal life (including humans) caused by climate change.
November 26, 2025 at 4:37 AM
I watched All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022) twice in the past two days. I feel that in many ways it's the film I was trying to unearth in my writing about Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016). An ambivalent attempt to document the monstrous changes in animal life (including humans) caused by climate change.
This was shot at my local ice cream shop (Holsten's) in Teaneck, NJ.
November 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
This was shot at my local ice cream shop (Holsten's) in Teaneck, NJ.
I also highly recommend The Making of a Color Animation (Shigeji Ogino & Noburo Ofuji, 1937). It's an educational film about animation creation that also features some beautiful color work.
November 23, 2025 at 3:58 PM
I also highly recommend The Making of a Color Animation (Shigeji Ogino & Noburo Ofuji, 1937). It's an educational film about animation creation that also features some beautiful color work.
Finally got around to watching this. A 1933 utopian film from Japan, A Day after a Hundred Years (Shigeji Ogino) has an amazing animation style that is simultaneously ornate, simple, and inventive. Think it'll go well with Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936) in my upcoming SF film class.
November 23, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Finally got around to watching this. A 1933 utopian film from Japan, A Day after a Hundred Years (Shigeji Ogino) has an amazing animation style that is simultaneously ornate, simple, and inventive. Think it'll go well with Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936) in my upcoming SF film class.
Reading Levin's Rosemary's Baby. It's great. Nearly all the things I like in the film are already here. I especially love how bumbling the satanist conspirators are. They're not particularly good at hiding their plan, but they don't have to be because it is unthinkable. More inept villains please!
November 19, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reading Levin's Rosemary's Baby. It's great. Nearly all the things I like in the film are already here. I especially love how bumbling the satanist conspirators are. They're not particularly good at hiding their plan, but they don't have to be because it is unthinkable. More inept villains please!
Prepping for to teach my Intro students film history through a case study of New Queer Cinema. It's probably a sign of how bad things have gotten that I'm actually more nervous about how they'll respond to these films than I am when I screen parts of Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will.
November 17, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Prepping for to teach my Intro students film history through a case study of New Queer Cinema. It's probably a sign of how bad things have gotten that I'm actually more nervous about how they'll respond to these films than I am when I screen parts of Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will.
Watching Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947). Its depiction of antisemitism (which replaces the killer's homophobia in the original novel) is as a form of madness or bloodlust—ultimately creating a variation on the trope of the psychotic killer that replaces perversion with bigotry. It's fascinating!
November 17, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Watching Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947). Its depiction of antisemitism (which replaces the killer's homophobia in the original novel) is as a form of madness or bloodlust—ultimately creating a variation on the trope of the psychotic killer that replaces perversion with bigotry. It's fascinating!
I read The Throne of Bones not long ago and if it had been written today I would've thought it was a very thinly veiled allegory for our political class.
November 16, 2025 at 2:20 AM
I read The Throne of Bones not long ago and if it had been written today I would've thought it was a very thinly veiled allegory for our political class.
I think the time is ripe for the ghoul to make a revival. Corpse-eating, horrifying sexual proclivities, insatiable appetites, and endless greed. It's the creature for our present.
November 16, 2025 at 2:14 AM
I think the time is ripe for the ghoul to make a revival. Corpse-eating, horrifying sexual proclivities, insatiable appetites, and endless greed. It's the creature for our present.
The Black and the Green (St. Clair Bourne, 1983) on @criterionchannl.bsky.social was a great followup to Union. It's about Black activists going from America to Belfast to express their solidarity with the Irish revolutionaries during the Troubles. A beautiful portrait of solidarity as a practice.
November 15, 2025 at 5:16 AM
The Black and the Green (St. Clair Bourne, 1983) on @criterionchannl.bsky.social was a great followup to Union. It's about Black activists going from America to Belfast to express their solidarity with the Irish revolutionaries during the Troubles. A beautiful portrait of solidarity as a practice.
I know some were lukewarm on Union (Brett Story & Stephen Maing, 2024), but IMO it's brilliant. By laser-focusing on Amazon, it manages to be pro-union without indulging in any sentimental nostalgia. So great to see today's unions treated as aesthetically interesting and politically relevant topics.
November 14, 2025 at 6:09 AM
I know some were lukewarm on Union (Brett Story & Stephen Maing, 2024), but IMO it's brilliant. By laser-focusing on Amazon, it manages to be pro-union without indulging in any sentimental nostalgia. So great to see today's unions treated as aesthetically interesting and politically relevant topics.
Watched the amazing Testament (Lynne Littman, 1983) last night. It manages to drip with sentiment while also being ruthlessly unsentimental. To my eye, these nuclear films exacerbate the tense relationship between melodrama and apocalypse that @jenniferpete.bsky.social identifies in early ecocinema.
November 13, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Watched the amazing Testament (Lynne Littman, 1983) last night. It manages to drip with sentiment while also being ruthlessly unsentimental. To my eye, these nuclear films exacerbate the tense relationship between melodrama and apocalypse that @jenniferpete.bsky.social identifies in early ecocinema.
Prepping to teach this tomorrow. All these 80s British antiwar films are so horrifying thanks to their realism. They're often in direct dialogue with contemporary documentaries and news specials; and are steeped in the history/aesthetics of realist style. Would love to see more eco-dramas like this.
November 12, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Prepping to teach this tomorrow. All these 80s British antiwar films are so horrifying thanks to their realism. They're often in direct dialogue with contemporary documentaries and news specials; and are steeped in the history/aesthetics of realist style. Would love to see more eco-dramas like this.
This excellent post is evoking Larissa Sansour's In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2015), which features "narrative terrorists" that bury fabricated artifacts for future political fights over history. In addition to the film, Sansour actually did this as part of the project!
November 11, 2025 at 3:35 PM
This excellent post is evoking Larissa Sansour's In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2015), which features "narrative terrorists" that bury fabricated artifacts for future political fights over history. In addition to the film, Sansour actually did this as part of the project!
Here, I made a meme of it. You can thank me later.
November 11, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Here, I made a meme of it. You can thank me later.
You know what early silent films definitely did better than anyone since? Guys in weird outfits hopping around. Can we bring that back? There's something sort of grotesque about it that is really interesting to watch.
November 10, 2025 at 4:30 AM
You know what early silent films definitely did better than anyone since? Guys in weird outfits hopping around. Can we bring that back? There's something sort of grotesque about it that is really interesting to watch.
One week later:
November 9, 2025 at 10:50 PM
One week later:
If it was a class, you could read this together:
November 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
If it was a class, you could read this together: