“China : window on blows” - Underneath the images - ARTE

Decoding images of violence, a perilous exercise.

The tv channel ARTE asked me to participate in one of the programs of the series “Le dessous des images”, on the question of amateur images filmed in contexts of state violence. I speak in the last part of the program.

This program was conceived by Agnès Hubschman and is presented by Sonia Devillers.

The program can be seen here on the ARTE website: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/110342-028-A/le-dessous-des-images/

I also put here the whole “rush” of my interview (35 minutes), because I find it very useful, to build one’s own critical look, to observe what has been chosen or not chosen by the authors of the program. Each production is part of an editorial line. If you are an anarchist activist, you will have a different approach than if you are a state-subsidized television channel, which is quite normal. What I think is interesting is to also look at the form of the program itself in terms of this consciousness.

Presentation text of the program “China: Window on Blows” - Underneath the images

This scene of violence was filmed discreetly from an apartment in eastern China. It testifies to the severity of the “zero Covid” policy being pursued by the authorities until December 2022. Why and how was this video filmed and broadcast in this authoritarian context? Presented by Sonia Devillers, the magazine that analyzes the images of our time.

On November 7, 2022, a resident of Linyi filmed the violent arrest of a man by the anti-Covid police. Like other residents of this confined area, the man had gone out to find out about the situation. A new visual genre since the confinement, these images captured from the windows take on a very political dimension in China. Lou Kisiela, France 24’s Shanghai-based correspondent, tells us about the rise and spread of these videos. Benoît Labourdette, filmmaker and researcher, analyzes the role of the window in painting and cinema.