Screening: Prison Images / Desert of the Real

Our susceptibility to technological systems of global capitalism is perhaps one of the most elusive and prevalent forms of vulnerability, and the hardest to make empowering. The screening programme reveals the growing oppressive power of media: from the CCTV control society in Prison Images to the world custom-made for selfies and tweets in Desert of the Real.

Prison Images (2000), 60 min, Director: Harun Farocki
Harun Faroсki’s Prison Images contains extensive footage taken from feature films, surveillance cameras and documentaries in which prisoners are caught on, or present themselves to, the camera. The film becomes an exploration of contemporary control technologies, and how images are used to monitor and track. Not only in prisons, but also throughout everyday life.

Desert of the Real (2017), 70 min, Director: Christian von Borries
Following the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, Christian von Borris invites viewers to the 'Desert of the Real': a contemporary world full of emptiness and potential violence. Developing the idea of a society penetrated by new forms of media, he extends the metaphor of the wasteland to today’s reality, with its numerous simulations and replicas.

Total running time: 2 hours 10 minutes