Today the genre of science fiction is widely associated with big-budget American films featuring space invaders and lab-made monsters. Outside of mainstream media, however, science fiction is often employed for political allegory, exploration of identity, and critiques of societal hierarchies and norms by diasporic, Indigenous, and independent filmmakers around the world. Science Fiction against the Margins is a compilation of fifteen essays by scholars and filmmakers that focus on B movies, television programs, independent productions, and experimental film, video, and media installations. Addressing four thematic areas—Outer Space/Out of Space, Imagining Violent Worlds, Remembering the Future, and Crossing Borders and Time—the authors examine nontraditional science fiction films for their potential to theorize social change.

Copublished by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press and the UCLA Film and Television Archive with support from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the Getty initiative PST Art: Art & Science Collide.