Surveillance means more than just being observed – it shapes how we see ourselves and others. Hidden cameras, national borders, algorithms, and social groups direct our gaze, inscribe power relations into images, and influence our daily lives. The films in this program explore in very different ways how control becomes visible – and how it can be countered: poetically, critically, rebelliously. This gives rise to multifaceted perspectives on power and resistance that make us ask: How do we want to be seen – and how can we change the direction of our gaze ourselves? (Anna Melikova)
In a dream, the artist transforms into an animal and crosses unnoticed through the forest at the border fence between Poland and Belarus. There she encounters her grandmother – silent and close. The poetic video work combines personal memory with political reflection and shows how transformation can express longing, fear, and resistance at the same time.
… >>>CN: Violence The film reconstructs the shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old in the Paris suburbs in February 2020. Between two frames from a surveillance camera, it follows the trajectory of the bullet and the movements of the protagonists. Using CGI and changing image styles, the work questions police violence in France and makes the invisible dynamics of the event visible.
… >>>In Taipei New Park, a woman uses a device meant to find hidden cameras but accidentally brings the park’s statues to life. These statues, linked to Taiwan’s colonial past, seem to rise to avenge a tragic plane crash during a 1964 national day's military parade under Chiang Kai-shek’s military law.
… >>>In protest against transphobic TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) rhetoric, this powerful self-portrait of a trans man is created. While TERFs speak of "irreversible operations," he confidently asserts his existence and legitimacy.
… >>>CN: Suicide The suicide rate in prisons is ten times higher than in the general population. Instead of improving prison conditions, politicians rely on solutions using modern technology. IMITATION MACHINES documents the training process of an artificial intelligence that is supposed to predict and prevent prisoner suicides in German prisons.
… >>>The electronic monitoring has transformed Tehran into a digital panopticon, turning the nightmare of constant surveillance and control into reality. But even within this enormous machine of obedience, there are individuals who, in a moment of rebellion, turn against their enslavement and break the rules of the game. What happens when the roles are reversed and the focus is turned on the surveillants?
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