A student-led online community based at the Centre for Media and Film Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Activist File
looks at all forms of online collective action that promotes, contests, or resists change
Film Reel
moves past mainstream reviews, putting film into historical and political context
Debate Room
is a participatory space where comment is free, but facts are (not necessarily) sacred
News Desk
offers notes on the world through the most outrageous news about/from the global South
Visual Space
is for thoughts involving that which can be seen. Is it seen… should it be seen? Who decides?
Commentary, International, New Media »
MicroWork – A new global revolution or ultra cheap foreign labour?Tweet
Microwork’s method is admittedly clever as it is simple. You have menial task, you post it online, and someone on the other side of the world does it for you for a shockingly low price.
Dozens …
Your digital other
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There is a brilliant sci-fi genre that describes sentient beings who reject human form entirely and ‘download’ themselves into giant machines to live out entirely digital lives. The creation of these beings create moral and …
The conference “After the Spring” now online
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For those of you who could not attend the conference or would like to see again what was discussed in the conference, these are the videos that Teresa Sánchez and Estrella Sendra filmed during the …
London Palestine Film Festival presents: pre-fest events
The 15th London Palestine Film Festival organizes experimental, documentary and drama pre-festival events at three venues across London.
Conference “After the Spring: Which Way Forward for the Middle East?”
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Omar Sirri, Amir Sadafi, Ellen Berry and Carolyn Barnett, all of them students of MSc in Middle East Politics in SOAS, organized a 1-day conference that gathered a variety of academics, journalists and activists last …
What is (the White Matter)
Former SOAS tutor Matti Pohjonen has just finished developing a short film set in one of India’s most enigmatic cities.
Sports or politics? Lessons from two nations
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More often than not, sports have shown to have a life and significance beyond the realm of “sports”. Defined as a form of “physical activity” and mostly coupled with culture and media by …
Phone Hacking: it’s sad, not bad…
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Oh how outraged everyone is getting over the bean spilling going on at the Leveson Enquiry.
Yet looking at phone hacking as a morality tale masks the real background story. As the enquiry is revealing, phone …
REVIEW ON A SECTION OF LES STATUES MEURENT AUSSI (1953, ALAIN RESNAIS AND CHRIS MARKER).
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This is a review on a section of the French film Les statues meurent aussi (1953), directed by Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, two French filmmakers framed in the Nouvelle Vague that refused to follow …
What does news look like?
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Al-Jazeera has recently passed two milestones. The first, on 11 November was the launch of its new Balkans channel. The second, four days later, was the fifth anniversary of Al-Jazeera English. As Al-Jazeera extends its …
Love, Identity and Multiculturalism
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The lovers (Magritte).
1. Introduction
This dissertation carries out a comparison between East is East (Damien O’Donnell, 1999) and Ae Fond Kiss (Ken Loach, 2004) in order to analyse the influence of multiculturalism in the contemporary …
Persistence Resistance Festival London 2011 at SOAS
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For those in and around London next week, you may be interested in a forthcoming event on documentary practices from India, including screenings, conversations and discussions on the theory and practice of selected films and …
The Distribution Forum – Film Africa 2011
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The Distribution Forum is our unique event to bring together African and UK-based filmmakers from the diaspora with leading UK-based film distributors. It is an open workshop, free to the public where practical advice on …
African Film Festival: 3-13th November
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Film aficionados, please be sure to check out Film Africa 2011, taking place 3rd – 13th November at various London cinemas and co-organised by SOAS Senior Lecturer Lindiwe Dovey.
Film Africa boasts:
10 days of more than …
Rebellious Media Conference: Media, Activism and Social Change
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Frustrated with the mainstream media’s coverage of war, climate change and the economy, or already making your own media? Interested in acquiring new skills or finding out more about exciting radical media projects from around the …
A virtual space for Arabs
Attempting to counter the stifled ability to express, Arabs.com interestingly points out that we must admit that we are ‘oppressed’ in order to actually combat that oppression. In his ‘message’, the founder of the website states his support for the freedom of choice and expression as well as the need for platforms without bias or guardianship.
Cyber-sceptics unite – a review of Morozov’s ‘The Net Delusion’
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This review originally appeared in Literary Review, April 2011
This book essentially a warning to the West – a term that is never defined but refers more or less to US policymakers – about its blinkered cyber-utopianism. Evgeny Morozov …
A social media revolution?
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So the joke goes that Mubarak dies and meets Nasser and Sadat in the afterlife. They ask him, “were you poisoned or shot?” Mubarak shrugs and answers “Facebook!” Actually, an Egyptian family did recently name …
Egyptian Revolution did NOT start in Silicon Valley, CA.
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On March 30th, the frontline club and in association with BBC Arabic hosted a special panel titled: Protest, Technology and the End of Fear. The event hosted Alaa Abdul Fattah, famous Egyptian blogger and political …
angry at Muslamic Infidels?
Although ignorance can be laughable, it has a frightening role in society.
humour in the revolutionary sphere
I saw somewhere that George Orwell once said, “every joke is a tiny revolution.” In the last week of this current wave of up rise throughout the Arab world, it has been the humour in social protest that has fascinated, and perhaps even confused, me. What role do these comedic characters play?
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Recent Posts
- MicroWork – A new global revolution or ultra cheap foreign labour?
- Your digital other
- The conference “After the Spring” now online
- London Palestine Film Festival presents: pre-fest events
- Conference “After the Spring: Which Way Forward for the Middle East?”
