Jump Cut
Conceived over a cup of coffee in Bloomington, Indiana, the influential film and media journal Jump Cut was started by Chuck Kleinhans, Julia Lesage, and John Hess. Jump Cut differed from the other film journals they had originally been published in. They stated the journal's goal in its first issue in 1974: “We stand for a political film criticism because understanding film has meaning only when we are also trying to change the world.” Jump Cut has maintained this political stance, with the website explaining its strategy:
Taking an explicit political stand as a nonsectarian left, feminist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist publication, JUMP CUT is committed to presenting and developing media criticism which recognizes: (1) media in a social and political context; (2) the political and social needs and perspectives of people struggling for liberation — workers, women, oppressed minorities, people in the developing world, gays, lesbians and queers; (3) the interrelationship of class, race, and gender oppression; (4) new theoretical and analytic perspectives.
Jump Cut was published in print from 1974 to 2001, when it switched to free online access. The Jump Cut records at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research include a full run of the printed issues, alongside extensive correspondence, editorial notes, and other records related to the complex process of independent publishing. An online archive of Jump Cut's full run is available here.
The flyers, letters, and calls for paper below show the playful style employed in promoting and publishing Jump Cut, while also demonstrating the journal's strong rhetorical stance that was established from the beginning.
As of fall 2025, Julia Lesage is thinking about what the future of Jump Cut should look like. You can view an informal conversation with Alex Juhasz that reflects her current thinking here.
