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?
Analysis, Commentary, Europe and Central Asia, Latest News, New Media, Print »
Phone Hacking: it’s sad, not bad…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).
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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’
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?
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.
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?
What is Indian Cinema?
Is Bollywood really Indian cinema? We all know Bollywood is a big industry and to an extent has protected us from Hollywood films. But has it also helped us relegate other Indian films to the …
SMALL MEDIA SYMPOSIUM 2011 | CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The Small Media Initiative invites submission of abstracts for its 2011 Small Media Symposium to be held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London on 8 – 9 …
What Egypt Taught Me: People plus Media is equal to Power
As I sit here breathless in London, flicking channels between Al Jazeera English, BBC, CNN and France 24, in anxiety and excitement to see what Hosni Mubarak will announce within the hour, I look back …
Notes on Egypt, Al Jazeera and the Digital Divide
The current situation in Egypt is indeed provoking many discussions about the role of media in the coverage, and some could argue the ignition of its events, which began on the 25 January 2011. The …
‘Enough’ Circulates
London Protests
29 Jan 2011
On the streets of Cairo, Egyptians are re-drawing the map of the Middle East, and arguably the world. In a couple of hours it would be almost a week since the protests …
Tweeting Tyrants Out of Tunisia: Global Internet at Its Best
What has happened during only a span of four weeks in Tunisia is mind-boggling and unprecedented in the modern day history of the Middle East; that a dictator who has had a stronghold in Tunisia …
Operation: Tunisia
Any form of speech used for pulling communities together to criticize a government or ruling group’s action has historically met with tightening of laws, suppression of freedom and unjust actions at the hands …
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Recent Posts
- Phone Hacking: it’s sad, not bad…
- REVIEW ON A SECTION OF LES STATUES MEURENT AUSSI (1953, ALAIN RESNAIS AND CHRIS MARKER).
- What does news look like?
- Love, Identity and Multiculturalism
- Persistence Resistance Festival London 2011 at SOAS
