Film, Video & Art
Here is a compilation of film, videos, artists, and art pieces that can be accessed for research, teaching, and personal viewing.
Film & Video
Film List By Dietmar Kammerer
Berlin based Dietmar Kammerer, cultural anthropologist, film critic and philosopher has compiled an extensive and annotated list of surveillance feature films (pdf).
It contains films from 1956’s “1984” to the classic “Dr Mabuse” (1960), from the absurd “Brazil”(1985) to the mainstream “Sneakers” (1992), from De Palma’s “Blowout” (1981) to Antonioni’s “Blow-up” (1966) – films from early as 1927 – “Metropolis” – to the latest Hollywood hits.
The Surprise Project (EU fp7) has produced a couple of films on subjects covering smart cameras, deep packet inspection or smart phone tracking.
Canadian surveillance scholars have released a statement on mass surveillance – read more under Transparent Lives or watch it as a film.
Explore the narrative, stylistic, and thematic connections between Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOW-UP, Francis Ford Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION, and Brian De Palma’s BLOW OUT with this video essay entitled “Cross-Cut.”
Screening Surveillance is a short film series created by sava saheli singh that speculates surveillance futures and aims to raise awareness about how large organizations use data by highlighting how these practices might affect everyday life.
Art & Artists
Created by Dr. Susan Cahill, Art & Surveillance is a component of the Art and Surveillance Project, this online database catalogues artists, artworks, and exhibitions addressing surveillance within Canada post-9/11. Organized as an on-going directory, this project welcomes any updates and suggestions.
VICE has a great archive of articles about surveillance art.
Cam Hunters is an art performance and research-creation project created by media artists Julia Chan and STÉFY. Our aim is to create scholarly art and critical tools to interrogate the increasing presence of surveillance, in all its forms, in our lives. Includes statement on declining online imaging; a podcast; performance videos; resources, and speaker series.
