Movies Change Lives

Contents: Pertinent Theories - Cinema as Pedagogy for Constructive - Humanistic Transformation - Ten Movies: Mississippi Masala, Syriana, The Runner (Davandeh), The Truman Show The Matrix, Match Point, Paradise Now, Doubt, Her, A Separation.

Tony Kashani (PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies) teaches interdisciplinary studies courses at Southern New Hampshire University. His previous books include Deconstructing the Mystique: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Cinema (2009) and Lost in Media: The Ethics of Everyday Life (Peter Lang, 2013).

«Tony Kashani has written an engaging and thought-provoking philosophical meditation on what cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters to Italian neo-realism, can teach us about our socio-political predicament. The fascinating discussion of film noir alone is worth the price of admission.»
(David Ingram, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago)

«Movies Change Lives is a brilliant engagement with film as a form of public pedagogy. Broadening the scope of the meaning of education and its possibilities as a crucial sphere of learning, Tony Kashani demonstrates the profound importance of understanding film as a pedagogical site that both informs and closes down how we understand the relationship between ourselves and others. Every educator should read this book.»
(Henry Giroux, Author of The Violence of Organized Forgetting (2015)

«Tony Kashani is one of our shrewdest and most brilliant cultural analysts. Driven by his faith in cinema as an art form par excellence for raising consciousness, he boldly looks to do no less than re-humanize society through film. A remarkable goal!»
(Toby Miller, Author of Blow Up the Humanities (2012)

«Tony Kashani has given us a deeply humanistic examination of today's cinema and its potential to transform human consciousness that is both thoughtful and delightful to read.»
(Allan Combs, Professor of Consciousness Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies)