Afterword
This afterword argues that despite fondness of many anarchist academics for popular culture, the most salient examples of twenty-first-century anarchist cinema and media have not originated from Hollywood or even from the increasingly conformist realm of so-called independent cinema. Although it is best to avoid facile dichotomies, there is clearly a widening gap within anarchist-inspired visual culture between “provisional” activist media and the avant-gardist tendency that still covertly believes in art as redemptive, even as it outwardly endorses an “anti-art” agenda. Moreover, it might not be too hyperbolic to claim that post-1999 anarchist film culture is less preoccupied with the schism between high and low culture than with dividing lines between collective, frequently anonymous, unsigned work and traditional auteur-driven cinema. To be sure, contradictions abound even in the most anti-authoritarian corners of the Internet where sites often feature both anonymous works that inspire activists, as well as films, both short and feature length, which are signed and reflect a specific directorial sensibility. What unites most of these films, though, is their widespread availability online.