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Astra Taylor’s Examined Life

This is my introduction to Avital Ronell – very stylish and sharp.

I have seen Zizek talking about Ecology in front of massive garbage many times here and there but failed to see that
this was from a very interesting and entertaining film by Astra Taylor.

Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West—perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual—compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be.
Featuring Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor. (via)

1judithbutler
Sunaura Taylor (Astra’s sister) and Judith Butler on the street of San Francisco.

Filmmaker – director’s interview

Going against the norm of “serious” documentaries tending to be depressing, Taylor here creates a film of substance that is nevertheless light on its feet. Neither the walking philosophers nor their conversations stop for a moment during Examined Life, so the result is physically and mentally energetic piece of filmmaking. And as the ideas in Taylor’s film are engaging and thought-provoking without being overly complex, we are left invigorated rather than bamboozled.

One of Taylor’s inspirations comes from Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker – Scott McLemee

<> <> Examined_Life_02-734770 Astra Taylor

Astra was raised in a strange Bohemian family, she explained in this interivew.