Atheism in Film

This chapter examines the understudied topic of atheist cinema, a topic that is ill-defined both in popular and scholarly literature. After defining atheism and briefly summarizing its history, the chapter considers how it might be applied to cinema. This includes an overview of Soviet cinema, auteurist art film cinema, films that critique religion, and movies associated with the so-called “New Atheism,” noting that there are limitations to equating any of these with an atheist cinema as such. Considering why there isn&s;t more and better atheist cinema, it is suggested that movies are inherently religious. The second half of this chapter features a chronological treatment of 12 diverse movies that would lend themselves to robust discussion about atheism and film in a classroom or a discussion group.