ReFocus: The Films of Steve McQueen

Thomas Austin is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. He is the editor of ReFocus: The Films of Steve McQueen (2023); and co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020).

• Introduction: Why Steve McQueen matters - Thomas AustinPart One1. From Exodus to Small Axe: Steve McQueen’s filmic world of two halves - Elisabetta Fabrizi2. Interrogating surplus liveness: Girls, Tricky - James Harvey3. Eye witness: memorialising humanity in Steve McQueen’s Hunger - Eugene McNamee 4. Shame and the City: Subverting neoliberal, New York singleton culture in Shame - Niall Richardson 5. If it is to be done, how: considering a Robeson biopic - Shana Redmond 6. The Slave narrative and filmic aesthetics: Steve McQueen, Solomon Northup, and colonial violence - Philip Kaisary 7. Working for / working with / working against: Widows and the politics and poetics of genre - Matthias Grotkopp Part Two8. Is Small Axe cinema or television and does it matter? Discourses of authorship and production in the publicity for Small Axe - Christine Geraghty9. Small Axe and / as cinematic television - Hannah Andrews10. Love in a cold climate: Lovers Rock - Thomas Austin11. Dub, ecstasy and collective memory in Lovers Rock - Kwame Philips12. The Burden of expectation: where are the women in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films? - Patricia Francis13. Boy with Flag and Black British experience in Handsworth Songs and Red, White and Blue - Thomas Austin14. Small Axe is a start: an interview with Bernard Coard

This book shines a spotlight on the visual brilliance of Steve McQueen's films. Backed by original research that blends textual analysis with socio-cultural exploration, each chapter offers insights into how McQueen has navigated diverse mediums, aesthetics, and politics. A primary reference point for those interested in the significance of McQueen in contemporary art and culture.