Workshop Archive

The T-word: Terrorism and New Media

27 November 2005

27 nov 2005

Besides a violent political practice, terrorism is an enormous media phenomenon that looms over and sucks in all current issues that relate to it. It warps the debate about immigration, it bends constitutions, it turns the skills of mediamakers against themselves. As a media strategy, terrorism is highly succesful, which poses interesting responsabilities for media makers.

Vergroot

the T-word, lecture - Mediamatic at the IDFA 2005

What?

In this programme, which also serves as the official opening symposium of the Interactive Political Film workshop, we will try to overcome this gravitation of the T-word. We want to see how a media maker can treat issues related to the T-word and remain light hearted.

Speakers

Four speakers will present ideas and discuss projects and fragments that relate to the T-word in unexpected ways and that try to create room to breathe.

Some of the speakers in this programme will be:

Patricia Pisters (NL), professor at the department of Film and Television Studies of the University of Amsterdam. She will speak on and discuss film clips about the rhetorical space in current political cinema.

Toni Serra (SP/Morocco), initiator of OVNI Archives in Barcelona, that brings together videos that speak in many voices and different languages about resistance movements throughout the world. OVNI wants to create links between different heterodoxies and critical thinking to search for new alternatives for survival, dialogue and community.

Hella Liefting is chief-editor at ANP (Netherlands national news agency). In her presentation she will focus on the responsibility of news agencies regarding reports on terrorism. The central question here is how to deal with terrorism related issues while maintaining an appropriate attitude. Are there ways to report them without according to the terrorist’s media script?

Najat Rizk works at Article Z and is the Lebanese coproducer of the film Zarqawi – The Terrorist Issue which reports on the terrorist network around Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the second man of Al Qaida. She will discuss this film in order to examplify the points of controversy in relation to the (ab)use of media mechanisms.

Date and place

The evening programme of November 27th starts at 20:00 hrs and takes place at the main hall of De Balie. The address is:
De Balie
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
Amsterdam

Price

The entrance fee is € 7,50. Tickets are available at the IDFA registers, located next to the Paté City Theater, Amsterdam. For reservations call: 020 4277452.