Thinking through movies is a way to think through America. But are there limits to what film can do to entertain the promise of social change and justice?

Joel Pfister places the films of Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, and Barbara Kopple in conversation with each other in the context of American social (in)justice. Rather than pigeonholing Moore, Lee, DuVernay, and Kopple as celebrated "social justice" filmmakers, however, Pfister contends that their influence extends beyond the limits of a contested term already strategically co-opted by the film industry.

Far from adhering to a sanitized definition or brand, these visionary filmmakers have instead dared us to fundamentally rethink the scope and stakes of social justice in the United States. Pfister's analysis incisively demonstrates how their combined and conceptually generative filmographies – including landmark films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Do the Right Thing (1989), Selma (2014), and Harlan County, USA (1976) – not only raise questions about social injustice but, in concert, help us envision a systemic social justice upon which to build in the present day.