Future Shock Film: The Hunger Games (2012)

In a world where civil war long ago reshaped the Americas as we know them, the "Districts" of Panem grow restless in a fixed resource economy. Their only raison d'tre to be satiated by the annual games in which they embrace a lottery system that places their youth in mortal combat. Directed by Gary Ross and released in 2012, with a superstar performance by Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games brought to cinematic life the bestselling novels by Suzanne Collins and helped kick off a short-lived YA Dystopia boom that continues to impact the entertainment industry.     

Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this "Future Shock Film" season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate The Hunger Games as future shock.

"Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media, and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film":

Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury, 2011.

Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies. NYU Press, 2017.

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Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.