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Man number 4

Miranda Pennell
UK
9’ 52"

Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

The images of the atrocity in Gaza — the first live-streamed genocide in history — arrived on the cell phones of countless millions around the world with unimaginable speed and momentum, coming from both its victims and the invading army. Given this swarm of visual abomination through which we end up scrolling at warp speed, ultimately shuttering ourselves as Farocki had warned in Inextinguishable Fire (1969), Man number 4 is an act of concentration, inviting us to participate in a reverse process. That is, to observe a single image at length and up close, so close that we examine its pixelated texture, seeking to understand its every element, as well as the context in which we consume it (here recontextualized on the cinema screen). (Flavia Dima)

Screening date and location

September 25th, 8:30 PM, Cinema Elvire Popesco

Tickets

Awards & Festivals

Miranda Pennell

Miranda Pennell is a London-based filmmaker whose work often recycles images from British colonial archives to reflect on contemporary situations. Her films emphasise the role of the imagination in the interpretation of historical documents, recently drawing on genre-fiction as a way of engaging with troubled histories. Pennell received an MA in visual anthropology in 2010 from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and she completed her PhD research at the University of Westminster in 2016. Her films have screened at Viennale, Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, FID Marseille, London International Film Festival, among others.

  • Technical sheet
  • Directed by: Miranda Pennell
  • Screenplay: Miranda Pennell
  • Voice: John Smith
  • Editing & Sound: Miranda Pennell
  • Audio mix: Philippe Ciompi

Screens

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Man number 4

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Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

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