Abstract

In order to grasp the symbiosis between sport and culture, cinema is an invaluable source of archival materials and critical gestures. Fiction films and documentaries are capable of not only capturing the unique motion and beauty of sport, but of questioning its multi-layered signifiers in terms of class, gender and race. This book assembles the voices of twenty experts to delve into key sport films and problematics from an international perspective.

Today, when professional and recreational sports are increasingly characterised by quantification and monetisation, it is difficult to separate sport from what Susan Sontag called the image market. Its performance and consumption are determined by its value for audiovisual production and social exchange. Sport is not just played or watched as before, now, it is fragmented, quantified in clicks and mediatised. Arguably, sport is more and more defined by its status as (and desire to be) image. 

This book offers a nuanced and critical view on the relations between cinema, sport and class that are reshaping life all over the world. It gathers an ensemble of plural voices (21 contributors) that apply their expertise in cinema and cultural history to dig into multiple territories (18 countries) and body cultures (15 different sports). In line with previous titles from De Gruyter's Film, Class, Society series, this volume fills a gap within the growing body of academic research on sport and cinema by focusing on class issues and depictions. Scholars as well as film and sport aficionados will be able to rethink sport and its most iconic images, interrogating their relation with power, money and class.

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