Change is best undertaken with a plainly stated purpose in sight. The new formats that are visible in this issue are meant to enhance Film Quarterly’s appeal to people who think seriously about movies, whether they do so inside or outside the academy.

“Democratic government is the original user-generated content”—a simple, pithy message spoken directly into the camera with clarity and conviction. James Kotecki knows what makes good YouTube; indeed, he has a claim to being the site’s single most astute user when it comes to political communication through online moving-image content.

The first striking impression created by the five-DVD set Stephen Dwoskin (Les Films du Renard, www.renardfilms.org) is the immense variety of modes and forms with which this director works — not only from film to film, but frequently within the same film.

The Namesake, French war films, Into Great Silence, The Lives of Others, Cleo from 5 to 7, YouTube; democratization v regulation

READ: A Public Place, All That Is Solid Melts Into War, The Online Stump, and The Hungry Cinema of Stephen Dwoskin