Joe Clement and Frann Michel review the 2017 film, The Young Karl Marx, written and directed by Raoul Peck (critically acclaimed creator of I Am Not Your Negro). The Young Karl Marx follows major events in Karl Marx's life in the 1840s when he turns from journalism to political agitation and meets up with an also young Friedrich Engels, culminating in the writing of the Communist Manifesto. Raoul Peck has described the film as breaking biopic conventions in focusing on ideas, and Joe and Frann consider some of them---from Marx's critique of abstract ideals and insistence on concrete analyses that point toward real social change, to the futility of moral persuasion because of the structural forces driving exploitation. In the last few minutes, they consider point by point the enduring relevance of the famous 10 Point Plan the Manifesto advises. Multnomah County Library carries the title in physical and digital forms.
- KBOO