On the Epistemological Potential of Film: An Inquiry into Apparatus Theory

This study questions the cinematic pathways for materialist social inquiry through a theoretical discussion that scrutinizes interconnections among the seventh art, cinematic realism, and ideology. One of the early systematic approaches which comprehensively deals with the discussion of ideology in cinematic practice is the apparatus theory. Broadly speaking, scholars of apparatus theory discuss the structure of cinema in the context of the social reproduction of prevailing ideologies. Although they are mostly pessimistic about the possibility of creating a critical, materialist cinematic approach, they nevertheless offer brilliant cinematic strategies to sabotage prevailing ideological reproduction. This article revisits the most crucial discussions of the apparatus theory with a contemporary look. By doing so, the possibilities of an alternative cinematic practice that may function as a cognitive tool to develop a critical/materialist social inquiry within the neo-liberal capitalist social structure are discussed.

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