What is the significance of documenting violence on film? How does social media challenge the border between witness document and sensationalism?

Tempo collaborates with DIA, the travelling documentary programme, who have come to present Angie Vinchito’s film Manifesto at Biblioteket Live – Arkivet Saturday March 11. After the screening DIA is hosting a panel talk around the themes on Russian youth culture, fear as cultural expression and documentary montage methods with guests Stefan Ingvarsson, analyst at Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, Helena Hörnfeldt, ethnology post doc, and Rebecka Bülow, film critic.

About the film:

This found footage film is composed entirely of often-shocking videos that Russian teenagers have posted on social media. Innocent morning rituals on YouTube or TikTok have been placed next to shots of panicking young people fleeing school shooters. And students all over Russia are apparently secretly recording images of violent teachers who can’t keep their hands to themselves. In class they are told that a woman must have sex with her husband whenever he wants; furthermore, students are called idiots and are beaten. One critical teenager is threateningly told that a report will be made about her political views.

The mobile phone forms a kind of shield between the young people and this brutal world, turning them into not only observers but also accusers. However extreme the events, they keep filming. Manifesto is a dark mosaic, cumulatively disturbing, and culminating in a horrifying ending. The film shows how aggression and oppression are unwittingly passed on to the next generation. Manifesto was awarded best film in the Envision Competition at IDFA last autumn.

Viewer discretion is advised

Panel participants:

Helena Hörnfeldt, associate professor in ethnology who have worked on the project Rädslor i Rörelse. Barns rädslor som kulturell och historisk praktik. 

Stefan Ingvarsson, Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies and former culture attaché at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. 

Rebecka Bülow, film- and litterature critic.

Saturday March 11, 14.00, Biblioteket Live – Arkivet.