Michael Chanan at IDRadio.Michael Chanan struck at the heart of neo-liberalism with his film Secret City uncovering key truths about the City of London Corporation and its role in the economic crisis. His new film Money Puzzles continues the attack, this time looking at the alternatives which exist across Europe to debt, austerity and mainstream economics. Michael Chanan has been showing Money Puzzles at Goldsmith University, hosted by Political Economy Research Centre, and today, it is playing at the Liverpool Radical Film Festival. For more information and for future showings see here.
Michael Chanan, renowned academic and filmmaker, sits in his office next to a ‘Soy Cuba’ film poster. “Yes I am an old Marxist,” he says letting out a chuckle, “and have no compunction in saying so.” A born and bred Londoner he fell in love with the culture and cinema of Latin America in his 20s. Over his career he’s published a range of books on politics, film and music. As a documentary filmmaker his work dates back to the early 70s where he started making films for the BBC. Later he worked for Channel 4 directing films on Latin America.
Yet it was the coming of the digital age which opened up the ability for him to take control of the means of production. This meant that he could film and edit inexpensively as well as utilising the visual archive that the Internet has become. What appears from this process are rough edged, oppositional films full of voices rarely heard in the mainstream media. There is a vitality to this DIY aesthetic that defies the polished and perfectionist nature of a filmic culture which all too often fetishizes style over content.
