Through desktop documentary and forensics, this work explores how images of Medusa of Hatra, ISIS propaganda, and digital archives influence reality and memory while examining violence and witness.

‘Kevin’s piece on his childhood experiences with the film Platoon are an example of the very power of cinema to shape our relationship with the world, and the world’s relationship with us … an experience of childhood trauma so visceral, that I haven’t just gained new insight on the war epic itself.’ (Cidnii Wilde Harris)

The mind process behind the film, Transformers the Premake, explained by Kevin B Lee himself.

The days of ransom notes written in letters cut out of magazines or bombastic manifestos sent to the newspapers are gone for good. Today’s media-savvy terrorists use filmed images for the purposes of manipulation, intimidation and propaganda. The Islamic State is almost unparalleled in the fervour with which it uses these means. As part of its war against unbelievers, this fundamentalist terror group disseminates tightly controlled videos with sophisticated editing. And the impact of these may well be even greater than the bloody violence unleashed by the group. In video letters addressed to one another, filmmakers and researchers Chloé Galibert-Laîné and Kevin B. Lee analyse ISIS films found online. They show how the terrorists make effective use of stylistic devices drawn from Hollywood blockbusters, manipulate platforms for citizen journalism, set up dramatic arcs and use the camera as an implement of torture. Mainly, however, this fascinating desktop documentary is about watching. Not just passive reception that blunts the senses, but rather an activity with emotional, intellectual, aesthetic and ultimately ethical consequences.