New Books in Critical Theory Becca Voelcker, "Land Cinema in an Age of Extraction" (U California Press, 2025)
Mar 21, 2026
Becca Voelcker, Lecturer in Art at Goldsmiths and author of Land Cinema in an Age of Extraction, studies films that treat land as social and ecological responsibility. She traces global, often little-known nonfiction practices—from farmer-filmmakers to Indigenous documentaries. Short takes cover contested filmmaking positions, repair and rural rejuvenation, multilingual framings, and cinema as communal infrastructure.
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Land Cinema Connects Ecology Politics And Aesthetics
- Land cinema names a genre that treats land as ecological, political, and aesthetic, connecting film to social and environmental responsibility.
- Becca Voelcker frames films from circa 1970 onward as documenting extraction, dispossession, and activist repair across Japan, Mali, Navajo Nation, Colombia and more.
Use Reparative Reading To Link Past Films To Present
- Read historically but reparatively: use Eve Sedgwick's reparative reading to connect past practices with present climate-justice aims.
- Voelcker situates herself (Welsh slate-quarry background) to avoid claims of neutral, objective history-making.
Why Land And Cinema Matter As Careful Terms
- Choosing the word land (not landscape) highlights how aesthetic traditions can conceal extractive violence, prompting a reparative intervention.
- Using cinema as a social architecture foregrounds filmmaking, screenings, and community action beyond a finished film object.
