Siege in the Air

Stuart Hall: Representation & the Media

January 1997 •English

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall offers an extended meditation on representation. Moving beyond the accuracy or inaccuracy of specific representations, Hall argues that the process of representation itself constitutes the very world it aims to represent, and explores how the shared language of a culture, its signs and images, provides a conceptual roadmap that gives meaning to the world rather than simply reflecting it. Hall's concern throughout is the centrality of culture to the shaping of our collective perceptions, and how the dynamics of media representation reproduce forms of symbolic power.

Communicating Non-Defensively

February 1982 •English

A 1980s educational video that teaches the view how to communicate more effectively in the workplace.

L'Âge d'or de la pub

June 2023 •French

Silence

November 2020 •English

In lockdown isolation, a young man decides to stay in contact with the outside world through the vocal messages of his friends and lovers. But those voices, which initially seemed to fill the silence and keep him company, become increasingly full of suffering.

Sanctuary

January 2017 •English

Donkeys inhabit and communicate with each other - and the filmmakers - in a Sanctuary.

Ladakh

March 1943 •English

A stunning trek from the vale of Kashmir, via Sind Valley and Kargil and Lamayaru Monastry.

Bulletproof

May 2020 •English

"Bulletproof" observes the age-old rituals that take place daily in American schools: homecoming parades, basketball practice, morning announcements, and math class. Unfolding alongside these scenes are an array of newer traditions: lockdown drills, teacher firearm trainings, metal detector inspections, and school safety trade shows. This documentary weaves together these moments in a cinematic meditation on fear, violence, and the meaning of safety, bringing viewers into intimate proximity with the people self-tasked with protecting the nation's children while generating revenue along the way, as well as with those most deeply impacted by these heightened security measures: students and teachers.

Koko: A Talking Gorilla

October 1978 •French

A documentary that follows Dr. Penny Patterson's current scientific study of Koko, a gorilla who communicates through American Sign Language.

The Essential Church

July 2023 •English

When governments use Covid emergency act edicts to restrict the gathering and worship of the Church, three pastors facing the risk of imprisonment, unlimited fines, and their own Churches splitting apart take a courageous stand and re-open in the face of a world that has chosen to comply.

In Delusion: Trump and the American Catastrophe

October 2020 •German

In 2020, the USA experienced a multiple catastrophe: No other country in the world was hit so badly by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic slump was dramatic, and so was the rise in unemployment. A rift ran through society. In the streets there were protests of both camps with violent riots, authoritarian traits were evident in the actions of the leader of the nation. And all of this in the middle of the election year, when the self-centered president fought vehemently for his re-election. From the start of his presidency, Donald Trump had divided American society, incited individual sections of the population against one another, fueled racism, hatred, xenophobia and prejudice, insulted competitors and denigrated critical journalists as enemies of the people. The documentary shows how this could happen and what role the targeted disinformation of certain sections of the population through manipulative media played.

Fatima's Job

February 2021 •English

Emerging artists seek to stay afloat in their industry whilst the Covid pandemic induces career threatening lockdowns.

Perturbation

April 2020 •French

Game Over?

November 2020 •English

This documentary shows how one of the biggest youth theatres in Europe dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Beyond Silence

May 2021 •German

The pandemic has many faces. It has affected everyone across the world, but each of us in a different way. A collection of individual fates observed in fine detail. And a filmic world tour that looks down on places of residence from above and yet gets very close to the people.

COVID-19: The System

November 2020 •Dutch

COVID-19. The whole world is in Lock Down. There is panic in society. What is going on? Is this actually about our public health?

The Cable That Changed the World

August 2024 •English

The first transatlantic communications cable, traversing the ocean floor from Valentia Island, County Kerry, to Newfoundland, Canada, 165 years ago was an 8 year endeavor that helped lay the foundation of the modern technology industry and explains the fragility of undersea cables today.

Unerhört!

October 2020 •German

81 Meters

May 2022 •Latvian

Spring 2021. A cinephile invites you on an intimate trip through the last surviving cinema houses in Latvia. This documentary essay, shot on super 8mm, opens the locked doors to picture houses during a Covid-19 lockdown, perhaps the most difficult time in the history of physical cinema space.

Martin Scorsese's Quarantine Short Film

May 2020 •English

Director Martin Scorsese talks about life in isolation.

Cabbage

March 2023 •English

An intimate film made in collaboration with the filmmaker's family, Cabbage looks at the complexities of bodily autonomy within an ableist paradigm. Taking place in the months leading up to an international move from Canada back home to Ireland – a country they had to leave a decade prior due to severe cuts in disability services – the film focuses on her brother’s writings using eye tracking technology and her mother’s memories to explore how we shape a sense of self under the pervasive weight of unspoken assumptions and fixed definitions that get placed onto bodies. Dissecting layers of language, agency and power, the film is a subtle examination of how a human life is measured and valued.