Examined Life

The documentary takes eight thinkers out of their studies and puts them on the street. Cornel West talks from the back seat of a taxi, Peter Singer walks along a shopping street, Slavoj Žižek stands in a rubbish dump. Each speaks for about ten minutes and the subject is always the same: what a good life is, and what we owe each other. Astra Taylor's documentary is an attempt to get philosophy out of academic language. Not everybody agrees, and the film makes no effort to smooth that over; Judith Butler and Michael Hardt speak from different places again. The idea of thinking while walking becomes the form of the film itself. No conclusion is handed to the viewer; the questions are left open.