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Cold War Cinema

Cold War Cinema

By: Jason Christian Anthony Ballas & Paul T. Klein
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Cold War Cinema is a podcast about movies made during the first few decades of the Cold War (1947–1991). Each episode primarily focuses on one film, and the hosts, Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas, discuss the director's life and work, the historical context of the film, and examine its themes that relate to the turbulent politics of the era. Theme music and editing on the first 14 episodes by Tim Jones; theme music from then on by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt), and editing by Jason Christian. Logo by Jason Christian2024 Art
Episodes
  • Bonus: Robert Kramer's Radical Cinema w/ guest Whitney Strub

    Bonus: Robert Kramer's Radical Cinema w/ guest Whitney Strub
    Jul 1 2026

    In this bonus episode, Jason interviews the historian Whitney Strub about his scholarship and his new book Films That Explode Like Grenades: Robert Kramer and the Search for a Radical Cinema, just published by University of Chicago Press. The book examines the New Left and its underground cinema through the life and films of one its most important participants, Robert Kramer (1939-1999).

    Whitney Strub is associate professor of History at Rutgers University–Newark. He is the author of Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right (Columbia University Press, 2011) and Obscenity Rules: Roth v. United States and the Long Struggle over Sexual Expression (University Press of Kansas, 2013), co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Roberta Findlay (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), and editor of Queer Newark: Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community (Rutgers University Press, 2024). His work has also appeared in Radical History Review, Journal of the History of Sexuality, The Nation, and Temple of Schlock, among other venues. He is a longtime member and former chair of North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America.

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    We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:

    Whitney recommends Roberta Findlay's 1975 adult film Anyone But My Husband and the new book Baltimore's Black Arts Then & Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project by Mary Rizzo

    Jason recommends the book Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990, co-edited by Andrew Nette and Samm Deighan. Check out our interview with Andrew Nette from 2024.

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    Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com.

    To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.

    For more from your hosts:

    • Follow Whitney on X at @whitstrub.
    • Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Jason also writes an infrequent newletter on left-wing cinema at Notes on Radical Cinema.
    • Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas, or on Letterboxed at @tonyjballas.
    • Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com

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    Logo by Jason Christian

    Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).

    Happy listening!
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 51 mins
  • S2 Ep. 14: Fail Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet)

    S2 Ep. 14: Fail Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet)
    Jun 24 2026

    The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss Sidney Lumet's 1964 film Fail Safe, a powerful (and bold) independent Hollywood production that paints a horrific picture of a potential nuclear war. The film was released the same year as Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and has remained in its shadow, unfairly, ever since.

    In this episode we discuss:

    • Sidney Lumut's fascinating and underrated cinematic career
    • The political and historical context of Fail Safe (1964), a film that captures the paranoia of nuclear proliferation
    • The film's critique of war technology and how that maps onto our current era of AI-assisted warfare.
    • The limits of Hollywood storrytelling for a truly radical critique of US imperialism

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    We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:

    Jason recommends the 1992 book Signatures of the Visible by Fredric Jameson.

    Paul recommends the novel Advise and Consent by Allen Drury and Otto Preminger's 1962 film adaptiion Avise & Consent.

    Tony recommends the book Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality by Fredric Jameson and W.E.B. Du Bois's book Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil.


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    Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com.

    To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.

    For more from your hosts:

    • Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Jason also writes an infrequent newletter on left-wing cinema at Notes on Radical Cinema.
    • Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas, or on Letterboxed at @tonyjballas.
    • Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com

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    Logo by Jason Christian

    Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).

    Happy listening!
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 42 mins
  • S2 Ep. 13: Ivan's Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky) w/ guest Taylor R. Genovese

    S2 Ep. 13: Ivan's Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky) w/ guest Taylor R. Genovese
    May 30 2026
    "I want to underline my own belief that art must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition to it—otherwise life would become impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence." ― Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time (1986) The Cold War Cinema team is joined by guest Taylor R. Genovese to discuss Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature film, Ivan's Childhood (1962), a Soviet masterpiece about the Great Patriotic War and prime example of Thaw–era cinema. Taylor R. Genovese is an assistant professor of philosophy at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He has also been a filmmaker and photographer for over a decade. His multimodal and transdisciplinary research focuses on Marxism, historical memory, and borderlands. He is also an editor and board member at Iskra Books, a nonprofit scholarly publisher that releases original works of revolutionary theory, history, ecology, and art. In this episode we discuss: Andrei Tarkovsky's life and careerThe historical and political context of Ivan's ChildhoodTarkovsky's aesthetic vision and theological concernsHow the concept of "toska" shapes the sensibilities of the literary and cinematic arts in the Slavic world, including in Tarkovsky's films.The moving image representation of trauma and transcendence in Ivan's Childhood.The poetry of Andrei's father, Arseny Tarkovsky, and its influence on the filmmaker.The Soviet astethetics of Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928), as articulated in his book Art and the Working Class, which Genovese translated from the Russian in 2022. To purchase the book (or download a free PDF), click this link. _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Taylor recommends the films Come and See (1985, dir. Elem Klimov) and Dead Man's Letters (1986, dir. Konstantin Lopushanskiy). Paul recommends a film and a record: Sergei Eisenstein's Strike (1925) and U2's War (1983). Tony recommends the book Freudianism: A Marxist Critique, by Valentin Voloshinov, and the new essay "The Enchanted Biopolitics of Dark Cosmism" by our guest Taylor R. Genovese. Jason recommends the film Kes (1969, dir. Ken Loach) _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. For more from your hosts: Follow Taylor uses the handle @trgenovese on X, Instagram, and Letterboxd. Information on his scholarship and visual art can be found on his website at taylorgenovese.com.Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas.Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Happy listening!
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 49 mins
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