RADICAL PRESS IN AOTEAROA
LAMA PUBLISHING
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Reviews
“Never will you find a better collection of Barrie’s work!” — Thomas Beagle, Chairman, NZ Council for Civil Liberties
“Readers will find perceptive analysis, historical awareness, and deep commitment to human freedom. It is a stimulating and rewarding reading.” — Robert Trigan, Human Rights Lawyer and Activist
“I may not always agree with his political views, but I would never deny Barrie’s ability to bash out some readable and interesting stuff.” — Miles Lacey, Beneficiaries and Unemployed Workers Union
An Anarchist at the Movies gathers more than two decades of reviews by Aotearoa/New Zealand anarchist Barrie Sargeant, written between 2004 and 2026 for a wide range of periodicals, pamphlets, and websites.
Moving freely between cinema, books, and political culture, these pieces reflect on art through the eyes of a long-time activist rather than a professional critic. While a small number of academic studies have examined film through an anarchist lens, this collection offers something different: an accessible, grounded perspective shaped by lived political experience.
The essays collected here also serve a practical purpose. Much anarchist writing appears in small publications and online spaces that often vanish with time. By bringing these reviews together, An Anarchist at the Movies preserves a fragment of that culture for future readers and researchers.
This book is not written to demand agreement. Instead, it invites readers to think, argue, and engage with the films and ideas it explores. Whether you share the author’s politics or not, the conversation is open — and the projector is already running.
EXTRACTS
1917
Jean Vigo
About the Author
Barrie Sargeant is a veteran antipodean anarchist. He lives somewhere, works somewhere, and does stuff. Despite being tired, he’s still enthusiastic to help change the world we live in for the better. He previously wrote and published the detective novella The White Swan.
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DEFYING SILENCE, CRAFTING RESISTANCE
We are a platform for the voices that refuse to be silenced. LAMA Publishing operates as an independent imprint in Aotearoa, strictly dedicated to the preservation of radical histories and the expansion of cultural commentary through print.
Our purpose is to provide a rigorous space for contemporary critique and to safeguard the radical cultural traditions of anarchist thought. Through every publication, we resist the homogenization of the literary landscape, championing local and global dissent.
INDEPENDENT • RADICAL • TRADITION
LAMA Publishing is a small independent imprint based in Ōtaki, Aotearoa New Zealand. The press was established to publish works of cultural commentary, film criticism, political writing, and other projects that might otherwise remain scattered across ephemeral publications and websites. We are committed to producing accessible works that encourage readers to engage critically with film, literature, and political ideas.