Referencing Plato’s quote “The unexamined life is not worth living,” Taylor gives 9 influential contemporary thinkers 10 minutes each to express their views on existence and the moral dilemmas of modern life. Featuring Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj iek, Judith Butler, and Sunaura Taylor—who are shot everywhere from posh Fifth Avenue boutiques to a garbage dump—the film illuminates philosophy’s power to transform. Witty and insightful, “Examined Life truly feeds your head” (Toronto International Film Festival). 2008, 35mm, 87 minutes.
Astra Taylor
, a writer and documentary filmmaker, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2001 she produced, directed, and edited The Miracle Tree: Moringa Oleifera, a documentary commissioned by an NGO to record efforts of a sustainable development project in Senegal to alleviate the plight of infant malnutrition. Taylor also directed iek!, about the famous Slovenian cultural theorist. One of Filmmaker magazine’s 2006 “25 New Faces to Watch,” Taylor currently runs Hidden Driver Productions—which specializes in intellectual, cultural, and political issues—with Laura Hanna.
