Acknowledgements -- Abstract -- List of tables and figures -- Notes on citations and tables -- Preface -- 1 Peirce's Semeiotic and the Living Sign -- 1.1 What is a Sign? -- 1.2 One, two, three: a few sundry notes on triads, phenomenology, and the categories -- 1.3 Nine sign divisions and ten sign classes -- 1.4 The Decalogue: how signs grow -- 1.5 A Body Awakes -- 1.6 Icons, Photography, and Mimicry -- 1.7 Dialogue, index, and dynamic object -- 1.8 Habit and the growth of the symbol -- 1.9 Inner dialogue, self-control, and dissent -- 2 Parallel Developments and Divergences -- 2.1 New Dialogues -- 2.2 Documentary as Text? -- 2.3 Theorising Practice -- 3 Rupture, Dissent, and Conflict in the Cinema of Jon Jost -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Me, You, and We in Jon Jost's Speaking Directly -- 3.2.1 Violence and Authority -- 3.2.2 Inner dialogue and semeiotic autonomy -- 3.3 London Brief: Conformity and War -- 3.4 Passages: Apage and Sacrifice -- 4 War and biophilia in the cinema of Johan van der Keuken -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Herman Slobbe: the pain of growth -- 4.3 Ecology and self-control in the The Flat Jungle -- 4.3.1 Greed and Animosity -- 4.4 Face Value: Love and Death in the City -- 4.4.1 History as Outward Clash -- 4.4.2 Global War and Media -- 4.4.3 Love Cycles -- 5 Terror and love in the cinema of Rithy Panh -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Love, chance, and hope in The Land of the Wandering Souls -- 5.3 Self-cultivation and Reconstruction in S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine -- Conclusion -- References -- Index.