Examined Life
7.2 /10 1 Votes7.2
Screenplay Astra Taylor Country Canada | 7/10 IMDb Genre Documentary Initial DVD release February 23, 2010 (USA) Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 5, 2008 (2008-09-05) (Toronto International Film Festival)February 25, 2009 (2009-02-25) (United States) Cast (Himself), (Herself), (Himself), (Himself), (Himself) Similar movies The Matrix , State of Entanglement , Utopia , Archangels Don't Play Pinball , The Philosopher's Stone: The True Story , The Real Life | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Examined Life is a 2008 Canadian documentary film about philosophers directed by Astra Taylor. The film features eight influential modern philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises, discussing the practical application of their ideas in modern culture.
Contents
Featured philosophers
The philosophers featured are Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Žižek, and Judith Butler, who is accompanied by Taylor's sister and disability activist Sunny (Sunaura Taylor).
Production and release
The film appeared in the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival and the 2009 Kingston Canadian Film Festival. It is co-produced by Sphinx Productions and the National Film Board of Canada, in association with the Ontario Media Development Corporation, TVOntario and Knowledge Network.
Reception
Reception has been generally favorable (Rotten Tomatoes gives it 76%), However, Martha Nussbaum subsequently complained in The Point magazine, that although Examined Life displays "a keen visual imagination and a vivid sense of atmosphere and place" it nonetheless "presents a portrait of philosophy that is... a betrayal of the tradition of philosophizing that began, in Europe, with the life of Socrates".
References
Examined Life WikipediaExamined Life IMDb Examined Life themoviedb.org