Politics and entertainment have always been entangled. Sometimes, it’s mockery with a message (Charlie Chaplin clowning on Adolph Hitler in The Great Dictator). Other times, it’s an attempt to expose a local cause to a larger public (the striking miners of Salt of the Earth). And sometimes, it’s a creation so close to reality that the lines become blurred (the guerrilla fighters in The Battle of Algiers).
And for the next seven Fridays on TCM, host Ben Mankiewicz welcomes a variety of artists and politicians to discuss some of the most significant political films of all time for the new series, Making Change.
Every Friday, TCM screens titles taken from the New Republic’s list of the same name, many of which will be accompanied by a discussion between Mankiewicz and a guest (Spike Lee, Stacey Abrams, Robert Gates, etc.) to see how politics influence movies and vice versa. All 50 titles are worth your time, but make sure not to miss: Born in Flames (Sept. 20), I Am Not Your Negro (Sept. 27), A Face in the Crowd (Oc. 4), Citizen Kane (Oct. 25) and Weekend (Nov. 1).
ON SCREEN: TCM’s Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time, Fridays through Nov. 1.
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