Surveillance

What right do governments and corporations have to collect and retain information on our daily communications? What tools — both today and in the past — have been used to monitor citizens’ activities? What are the immediate and far-reaching effects of living in a culture of surveillance? At a time when governments and corporations around the world expand their efforts to track our communications and activities, this thematic block presents six thought-provoking films that explore the theme of surveillance from various angles, ranging from the long-term effects of the socialist-era secret police intervention with private life and creative work of individuals (Engelbecken, I Love You All) , to surveillance in the US maximum-security prisons (Prison Images), during a covert drone war in Pakistan (Drone) , and even in the imaginary world of the future where the total control equals full elimination of individual personality (Faceless). The program also includes Oscar-awarded Citizenfour, which follows the recent NSA surveillance revelations, from first contact with whistleblower Edward Snowden, to his secret interviews and the ensuing global fallout. Creatively redeploying CCTV and other found footage, the films in the selection demonstrate not only the terrifying extent of technological control, but the ways of creative resistance to the watchful eye of a mechanical “big brother.”

This program is organized in conjunction with the Watching You, Watching Me photographic exhibition on show at the Open Society Archives.

Oksana Sarkisova
Documenting Surveillance Film Program Curator

Yukiko Yamagata
Watching Me Watching You, Exhibition Curator

Films in Toldi, Művész, Cirko-Gejzír and KINO are screened in original language with English subtitles.

Laura Poitras # USA & Germany # 2014 # 112min # English & German & Portuguese
Follow the recent NSA surveillance revelations, from first contact with whistle-blower Edward Snowden, to his secret interviews and the ensuing global fallout.
Művész
Nov 12, 19:00
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Toldi
Nov 14, 19:00
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Tonje Hessen Schei # Norway # 2014 # 79min # English & Pashtu & Urdu
The CIA's covert drone war in Pakistan, and its effect on remote pilots, the military leadership and warfare, and the victims of the strikes on the ground.
Cinema for Peace Award, Berlinale, 2015
Művész
Nov 12, 18:45
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Cirko
Nov 13, 17:00
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Toldi
Nov 14, 21:00
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Művész
Nov 15, 19:00
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Gamma Bak # Germany # 2014 # 80min # German
Paranoia, depression, avant-garde art, and love: a relationship across the Iron Curtain under a watchful eye of the Stasi, the German secret police.
Toldi
Nov 14, 15:30
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Blinken OSA
Nov 12, 17:30
English & Hungarian Subtitles
Manu Luksch # Austria & UK # 2007 # 50min # English
An experimental anti-utopian film interrogating
 the 
culture
 of 
surveillance 
by redeploying 
authentic 
CCTV
 images.
Művész
Nov 12, 16:45
English Subtitle
Toldi
Nov 12, 21:15
English Subtitle & Hungarian Simultaneous Translation
Művész
Nov 14, 15:15
English Subtitle
Cirko
Nov 15, 15:00
English Subtitle
Eyal Sivan # Germany & France # 2004 # 88min # German
Relieved of his duties and purpose with the closing of the Stasi in 1990, "Mr B." delivers an account of twenty years of his life within the organization, supported by never-before-seen Stasi archive footage.
Toldi
Nov 14, 11:30
English Subtitle & Hungarian Simultaneous Translation
Művész
Nov 15, 17:15
English Subtitle
Harun Farocki # Germany & France # 2000 # 60min # German
A camera/gun combination of a maximum-security prison underscores the unity of observation and power. Merging fictionalized accounts and the reality of prison surveillance, Farocki delves into new forms of social control.
Toldi
Nov 11, 21:00
English Subtitle & Hungarian Simultaneous Translation
Művész
Nov 12, 16:45
English Subtitle
Művész
Nov 14, 15:15
English Subtitle