Afterlives Spectrum
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About
Canadian Premiere
In 2014, during the war in Syria, ISIS released a full-length propaganda film with the aesthetics of a blockbuster. In an attempt to reconcile the dual forces of terror with his own fascination, former film critic and video essayist Kevin B. Lee tries to use formal film analysis to examine the film, only to realize he can’t escape the weight of violent spectacle.
An immersive, essayistic documentary, Afterlives is bursting with ideas. Revolving around the central metaphor of Medusa — inspired by a museum exhibit — Lee considers the limits of observation in an age mediated by endless iterations of extreme images. Compelled to dig deeper, he turns to artists and activists, emerging technologies and historical research, to unearth how the violence of extremist media retains its power over time and seeps out into the groundwater of our digital environments. Constantly probing and reevaluating its own framework, the film rejects reductive answers or cliched responses to questions about violence, extremism, justice, and art.
Content Considerations: Extremist material, terrorist propaganda
In 2014, during the war in Syria, ISIS released a full-length propaganda film with the aesthetics of a blockbuster. In an attempt to reconcile the dual forces of terror with his own fascination, former film critic and video essayist Kevin B. Lee tries to use formal film analysis to examine the film, only to realize he can’t escape the weight of violent spectacle.
An immersive, essayistic documentary, Afterlives is bursting with ideas. Revolving around the central metaphor of Medusa — inspired by a museum exhibit — Lee considers the limits of observation in an age mediated by endless iterations of extreme images. Compelled to dig deeper, he turns to artists and activists, emerging technologies and historical research, to unearth how the violence of extremist media retains its power over time and seeps out into the groundwater of our digital environments. Constantly probing and reevaluating its own framework, the film rejects reductive answers or cliched responses to questions about violence, extremism, justice, and art.
Content Considerations: Extremist material, terrorist propaganda
