Astra Taylor Issue #40

In 'Examined Life,' the author and documentarian takes our modern thinkers out of ivory towers and unleashes them onto the streets

By Kathleen Keish
Published: June 1st, 2009 | 12:00pm

“I’ve always had a philosophical tendency,” says 29-year-old filmmaker and author Astra Taylor. “And by that I mean, the tendency of asking the question, especially this sort of ethical question, which is, ‘How are we to live?’ or ‘Why are we living this way?’ and ‘Why are other people living another way?’”

With her documentary Examined Life, and its accompanying book of the same title, Taylor brings these types of lofty questions out of the ivory tower. Examined Life features interviews with eight modern philosophers, including the likes of Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, and Judith Butler. But instead of filming these academic celebrities cloistered in their offices, she has them pontificating their ideas in casual, everyday settings.

“It’s not meant to be a comprehensive introduction to philosophy,” says Taylor of the project, “but it’s sort of an idiosyncratic introduction to these thinkers, and hopefully, it makes their ideas palpable through presenting them as human beings in an environment instead of just these sort of abstracted experts.”

And she’s right. There’s something oddly entertaining and charming about seeing West talk about philosophy as he’s scrunched up in the backseat of Taylor’s Volvo, cutting through New York traffic. Or post-structuralist feminist Butler carry on about individualism while walking through the graffitied alleys of San Francisco’s Mission District. Part of the fun of Examined Life is not only getting a quick Modern Philosophy 101 lesson, it’s getting a feel for the personalities of these thinkers, and the way their relatable settings amplify their arguments (Also part of the fun? Taylor’s husband, Neutral Milk Hotel founder Jeff Mangum, contributed to the film’s score).

Taylor’s interest in philosophy stems from her unusual upbringing. While many were placed on the usual K-12 track, Taylor attended only a few years of high school during her upbringing in Athens, Georgia. Before that, she was ‘unschooled,’ a blessing that allowed her to focus on subjects she was most interested in. While she has an MA in Liberal Studies at The New School for Social Research, Taylor never received any formal training in filmmaking, which suits her just fine.

“A lot of filmmakers are autodidacts, that’s one thing I really like about the community,” Taylor observes. “There’s obviously a lot you can learn … but there’s a certain sort of desperate tenacity that can’t be taught.” By 2005, Taylor released Zizek!, a documentary film on Slovenian cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek, whose frenetic monologues on everything from Lenin to David Lynch films are viscerally fascinating (he appears again in Examined Life). Shortly thereafter, Filmmaker Magazine dubbed Taylor as one of “25 New Faces to Watch.”

Examined Life had always been conceived as a book-and-film project. While the documentary only shows a few minutes of footage with each of the eight philosophers, the accompanying book gives us a more in-depth look. Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers is filled with transcripts of Taylor’s interviews with each thinker.

“I knew that I’d be cutting down these people to ten minutes and there would be tons of material left, so I definitely conceptualized the project in tandem,” Taylor says. “I think the book adds a lot to the film because you see, in more depth, the points of overlap and the points of disagreement and you get a deeper sense of the ideas.”

The whole point of releasing both a book and film is Taylor’s hope of building something of an “inquisitive momentum,” persuading viewers and readers to further delve into their own philosophical ideas. One of the goals throughout Taylor’s career has been to make philosophy fun, something that the everyman can enjoy just as much as any professor or critical thinker.

“I hope both the film and the book convey sort of pleasure of thought and convey this sort of urgency, but also intensiveness and enjoyment, of doing philosophy,” she says. “That was really my intention.” Well philosophized, indeed.