Afterlives

A desktop documentary engaging the historical and digital traces of extremist propaganda, examining how images of violence circulate, mutate and persist. Moving between online investigations and real-world encounters with artists and researchers, it invokes Medusa to explore the dangers and transformative potential of looking, questioning whether seeing can ever be innocent.

Kevin B. Lee: ‘These elements are connected by the idea of the afterlives of images: how past images of violence continue to live with us and how we engage with the legacies of violence. I hope the film prompts viewers to consider our responsibility as spectators — moving from passive unease to active, navigational engagement, considering and reconsidering an image across contexts.

At the same time, that engagement is not without risk and may lead to recurring confrontations with the implications of one’s own curiosity. This is especially important when one’s gaze forms the basis for retransmitting one’s way of seeing. That’s one of the core tensions in Afterlives: is it possible to engage with violence without being complicit in its spread? And if there is an implicit violence in looking, how does one acknowledge and engage with that potential?’