Afterlives
Afterlives is a feature-length desktop documentary that delves into the historical and digital traces of extremist propaganda, questioning how images of violence circulate, mutate, and persist.
Moving between virtual investigations and encounters with an artist, an activist, and a researcher, the film examines how media portray the Western world as “civilised” and the Middle East as “brutal,” revealing the geopolitical visual regimes that shape contemporary understandings of extremism.
At its core is the figure of Medusa—a victim of violence whose gaze turned viewers to stone—invoked as a symbol of both the dangers and transformative potential of looking.
From museum archives to destroyed artefacts resurrected through 3D scanning and AI-generated reconstructions, Afterlives traces how power structures, spanning from the colonial past to the digital present, govern what is seen, what is erased, and what survives.
Can we ever truly look without being complicit?
And is there another way to care?
“Media artist, filmmaker and critic Kevin B. Lee presents an unflinchingly complex and thought-provoking tapestry that interrogates the many faces of violence confronting our lives.” -BFI London Film Festival
“Afterlives is a dedicated, reflective documentary, the bell of its urgency ringing far into the past and into the futures of images.” - Savina Petkova, The Film Stage
“Visceral and straightforwardly emotional.. eerie formal poetry in copious quantities.” - David Katz, Cineuropa
"Lee has been far ahead of the curve for years in terms of how documentaries can streamline the conveyance of information, this film feels like a natural development of his style and voice.” - Joel Whitaker, Cinema Year Zero
“The starting point of a critical discussion that needs to be continued.” - Giuseppe Di Salvatore, Filmexplorer
"The desktop documentary is not just a stylistic choice: it's the perfect medium for this kind of investigation”- Milano Filmmaker Festival
Reviews
Insight
Credits
with
Kevin B. Lee, Morehshin Allahyari, Nava Zarabian, Anne Speckhard, Sebastian Baden, Bernd Zywietz, Yorck Beese, KAtrin Rademacher
Director & Script Kevin B. Lee
Director of Photography Ginan Seidl
Editor & Script Editor Janina Herhoffer
Sound Recording Aline Bonvin
Sound Design Laszlo Umbreit
Mix Rémi Gérard
Music Tadklimp, Maya Shenfeld
1st AD & Production Coordinator Konstanze Winter
Creative Producer & Dramaturg Mareike Bernien
Producer Caroline Kirberg
Co-Producers Beata Saboova, Vincent Metzinger
Produced by pong film, Berlin, Germany
In Co-Production with
Naoko Films, Brussels, Belgium
Pivonka Production, Paris, France
Production funded by
BKM, Germany
Eurimages Lab Project Awards
Field of Vision Grant, U.S.A.
CNAP, France
CCA, Belgium
Tax Shelter, Belgium
Distribution
Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.
Gerichtstraße 53
13347 Berlin
distribution(at)arsenal-berlin.de
World Sales
Odd Slice Films
Schrottgasse 1
1030 Vienna
martina(at)oddslicefilms.de
Tel. +43 677 63411156
Kontakt Produktion pong
Caroline Kirberg
kirberg(at)pong-berlin.de
Tel. +49 (30) 61076098
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