“The ‘organic intellectual’ must work on two fronts at one and the same time. On the one hand, we had to be at the very forefront of intellectual theoretical … to know deeply and profoundly. But the second aspect is just as crucial: that the organic intellectual cannot absolve himself or herself from the responsibility of transmitting those ideas, that knowledge, through the intellectual function, to those who do not belong, professionally, in the intellectual class. And unless those two fronts are operating at the same time, you can get enormous theoretical advance without any engagement at the level of the political project.”
Atrocity Inc: How Israel Sells Its Destruction of Gaza (2024)
The new film directed by Sut Jhally (nd featuring award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal) that examines Israel’s propaganda blitz after October 7th attack by Hamas where blatant lies were presented as fact to justify the genocidal campaign of slaughter directed against Palestinians.
The Occupation of the American Mind (2016)
Over the past few years, Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States. Narrated by Roger Waters, the film examines how the Israel lobby kept American public opinion within safe bounds.
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire (2004)
The 2004 film about how neo-liberal cabal of war mongers in the Bush administration used the 9/11 terror attacks to launch the attack on Iraq and attempt to inaugurate a new American Empire. Narrated by Julian Bond.
Peace, Propaganda and The Promised Land (2003)
By providing a striking comparison of US and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, Peace, Propaganda and The Promised Land zeros in on how structural distortions in US media coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how, through the use of language, framing and the context of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media.
Dreamworlds — Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Videos (2007)
Dreamworlds 3 takes a clarifying look at the warped world of music video. Ranging across hundreds of images and stories from scores of music videos, Jhally uncovers a dangerous industry preoccupation with reactionary ideals of femininity and masculinity, and shows how these ideals have glamorized a deeply sexist worldview in the face of the women’s movement and the fight for women’s rights
The Black Atlantic (with Paul Gilroy) (2024)
British historian, sociologist, and cultural studies scholar Paul Gilroy, one of the preeminent theorists of race and racism in the world today, revisits the key themes he explored in his acclaimed 1993 book The Black Atlantic: Modernity & Double Consciousness, a landmark work in the study of diasporas and Black cultural identity.
The Codes of Gender: identity & performance in popular culture (2009)
Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture’s inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse (2017)
Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising colonization of the entirety of the culture, identifying one consistent message running everything: that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. The film shows how this powerful narrative has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption.
Stuart Hall: the last Interview (2016)
Sut Jhally interviewed Stuart Hall shortly before his death in 2014. One of the seminal figures in cultural studies, he talks about his classic work Policing the Crisis, describes the political, symbolic, and material concerns that animated cultural studies in the 1970s, and offers a critical assessment of the field today. Physically ill for much of his later life, this final interview provides powerful testimony that his formidable intellect never deserted him.
Wrestling wth Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battering (2003)
Drawing the connection between professional wrestling and the construction of contemporary masculinity the film shows how so-called “entertainment” is related to homophobia, sexual assault and relationship violence, arguing that to not engage with wrestling in a serious manner allows cynical promoters of violence and sexism an uncontested role in the process by which boys become “men.”