New Dimensions in Science Fiction Utopia and Reality UR.indd 1 03/02/2020 13:11:30 New Dimensions in Science Fiction Series Editors Professor Pawel Frelik University of Warsaw Professor Patrick B. Sharp California State University, Los Angeles Editorial Board Grace Dillon Portland State University Tanya Krzywinska Falmouth University Isiah Lavender III Louisiana State University Roger Luckhurst Birkbeck University of London John Rieder University of Hawai‘i UR.indd 2 03/02/2020 13:11:30 Utopia and Reality Documentary, Activism and Imagined Worlds Edited by Simon Spiegel, Andrea Reiter and Marcy Goldberg UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 2020 UR.indd 3 03/02/2020 13:11:30 © The Contributors, 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS. www.uwp.co.uk British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-78683-524-6 eISBN 978-1-78683-525-3 The rights of the Contributors to be identified as authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Typeset by Marie Doherty Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham UR.indd 4 03/02/2020 13:11:31 Series Editors’ Preface Science fiction (SF) is a global storytelling form of techno-scientific modernity which conveys distinct experiences with science, technol- ogy and society to a wide range of readers across centuries, continents and cultures. The New Dimensions in Science Fiction series aims to capture the dynamic, worldwide and media-spanning dimensions of SF storytelling and criticism by providing a venue for scholars from multiple disciplines to explore their ideas on the relations of science and society as expressed in SF. UR.indd 5 03/02/2020 13:11:31 Contents List of Illustrations ix Contributors xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: Utopian Realities 1 Andrea Reiter and Simon Spiegel 1 Reality and Utopia: A Conversation with 17 Lyman Tower Sargent Lyman Tower Sargent and Simon Spiegel Part 1: Tracing Utopia 2 Utopia Revisited: Reading Dziga Vertov’s Man with 27 a Movie Camera in the Light of the Utopian Tradition Susanna Layh 3 Neither Fact nor Fiction: Made in Secret as a Utopian 56 Education in Desire Peter Seyferth 4 The Utopia of the Caliphate: Reading ISIS Propaganda 85 Videos as Utopian Texts Simon Spiegel Part 2: Alternative Documentary Politics 5 Living and Dying with Water: Indigenous Histories 115 and Critical Bioregionalism in The Pearl Button Matthew Holtmeier 6 Prospectivity in Political Documentaries 138 Andrea Reiter UR.indd 7 03/02/2020 13:11:31 viii CONTENTS 7 Practising Hope: Ecofeminism, Documentary and 167 Community Engagement Chelsea Wessels Part 3: New Forms of Documentary Activism 8 Trans-utopia: Documenting Real and Imagined Cities 191 Daniel Schwartz, Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou, Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner 9 Post-utopian Interventions by Students: Interactive 211 Documentary and Micro-revolutions Dale Hudson 10 Documentary Dreams of Activism and the Arab Spring 238 Jane M. Gaines Index 259 UR.indd 8 03/02/2020 13:11:31 Illustrations 2.1 Kino-eye (00:14:13) 30 2.2 In the viewing hall (01:03:33) 39 2.3 The cameraman, creator of the city (00:56:13) 42 2.4 The camera monitoring the city (00:27:06) 43 2.5 The demolition of the past (01:05:17) 48 3.1 Screening party with Muffy LaRue, nerdgirl and 64 J. D. Superstar (screenshot is lightened up for printing purposes; video is much darker) (08:41) 3.2 Kissing scene with Professor University, Mr Pants 66 and Monster (with camera) (29:46) 3.3 Discussion scene with nerdgirl, Hugh Jorgen, Muffy 74 LaRue and Professor University (and Mr Pants’s knee) (1:20:43) 3.4 Manifesto scene with Monster (02:12) 78 4.1 Health Services in the Islamic State 94 4.2 One of the many charts in The Structure of 97 the Khilafah 4.3 The title of Return of the Gold Dinar 100 4.4, 4.5 Return of the Gold Dinar mixes different kinds of 101 source material 5.1 Landscape shots that emphasise the beauty of 119 the Chilean coast and water’s role in shaping the bioregion 5.2 Supposed stars as they coalesce into waves 124 5.3 The archipelago of rain viewed from the troposphere 125 5.4 The stomach/bellybutton of one of the painted 133 Selk’nam 5.5 Speculative rumination on what is ‘unreal’ 135 6.1 TV music video clip during the Croatian military 145 offensive 6.2 UN General Alain Forand recounts the situation 147 6.3 Žbanić talks to a Sarajevan resident 152 UR.indd 9 03/02/2020 13:11:31