FILM LECTURE: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

(SCREENING INCL. LECTURE)

As part of Manufacturing Consent, film critic Kevin Toma presents a 25-minute extended introduction before a screening of Eisenstein’s revolutionary masterpiece. He’ll explore the ideas about cinema and propaganda behind its famous editing, place the film within the political context of the Soviet Union, and trace Potemkin’s enormous influence. He’ll also look at the many different soundtracks that have accompanied this originally silent film over the past hundred years.

Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) is one of cinema’s great acts of propaganda — a film designed to turn revolution into images powerful enough to move an audience. A century later, its radical montage and extraordinary Odessa Steps sequence still echo through political cinema, advertising and popular culture.

About the speaker:

Kevin Toma is a film critic, lecturer and composer, writing primarily for de Volkskrant. Alongside giving film lectures and courses throughout the Netherlands, he is known for composing and performing new music for silent cinema. In 2024, he received the Louis Hartlooper Oeuvre Prijs for his contribution to Dutch film culture.