Films are cultural artifacts. There is a political and artistic message in every one and we're here to document.
On each episode we pick a film; sometimes current and sometimes from the riches of world cinema's 100+ year history, and take a deep dive into what the film is really saying about the world. Both overtly and covertly.
Hanging Out With The Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
Need a warm cinematic hug from a group of close friends? Want to spend some time with people who get all your jokes? In this episode, we discuss The Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), a foundational work of American leftist cinema. We also look closely at John Sayles' early career as a novelist and screenwriter in the buildup to his debut as a director.
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28 Nov 2025
How to Mock a Tyrant in The Great Dictator (1940)
In this episode, we wrap up our look at depictions of fascism and authoritarianism on film with Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). Chaplin had the nerve to go fully anti-fascist and anti-racist at a moment when much of Hollywood was still pretending Hitler was just a distant "European problem".
Chaplin mercilessly skewers Riefenstahl-style fascist pageantry and spectacle while also refusing the era's usual antisemitic caricatures. He centers half of the narrative on a working-class Jewish barber whose daily life is shattered by storm trooper raids that feel uncomfortably close to those carried out by modern ICE agents and militarized police.
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24 Oct 2025
Imagination as a Form of Resistance in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
This week, we descend into the dark fantasy fairytale of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Amid the rich craftsmanship of the fantasy world that Ofelia imagines, the film lays bare the horrors of Francoist Spain—all captured through Del Toro’s anti-fascist cinema. The calculating evil of Captain Vidal, a devotee of Falangism and a violent patriarch, stands among the most iconic of Del Toro’s villains.
With fascist rhetoric disturbingly mainstream in contemporary US politics, Pan’s Labyrinth feels less like a historical fantasy and more like a warning. It is a portrait of how fascism seeps into the everyday and how resistance can be imagined and realized, even when hope is in short supply. The film’s lush fantasy is always shadowed by real life violence, teaching us that fascism flourishes not in isolation but within the systems of power that capitalism creates and legitimizes.
We wrap things up with a brief discussion of Pinocchio (2022), where Del Toro, ever the mythmaker, recasts a children’s tale set during the rise to power of Italian fascism.
Follow us at: Patreon / Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/politicsofcinema/) / Letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/AaronSpears/) / Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/politicsofcinema)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
8,202
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
12 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 68 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
74
Social presence
0
YouTube
68
Engagement
85
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