Desktop Documentary Series · 2018–2020
Bottled Songs
Two filmmakers write to each other across screens, tracing online terrorist propaganda through epistolary desktop investigation.
Bottled Songs is an ongoing media project by Chloé Galibert-Laîné and Kevin B. Lee that depicts strategies for analyzing online terrorist propaganda. Using a desktop documentary approach with epistolary compositions addressing each other, the filmmakers trace their investigations on computer screens — navigating news archives, social media, jihadi forums, and video hosting platforms to confront how violence circulates and persists online.
The first phase consists of four short desktop films, each approaching the same disturbing territory from a different angle, voice, and method. The project was developed in collaboration with the Harun Farocki Institut and supported by a Eurimages Creative Labs Project Award, which funded development of a feature-length expansion — realized as Kevin's film Afterlives.
The Four Films
Part 1
The Observer
Chloé Galibert-Laîné
Chloé investigates a phone video of ISIS captives running through a desert, posted by Les Observateurs as "citizen journalism." Despite removal from most channels, the video persists on a legitimate news platform, spreading terror for years. Investigation reveals multiple footage variants across countless sites.
Part 2
Looking Into the Flames
Kevin B. Lee
Kevin analyzes a video described as ISIS's "first feature film," exploring mainstream media's fascination with it as cinema. He examines potential connections to Nazi propaganda, Hollywood spectacle, and leftist revolutionary film, adopting interruptive viewing techniques to bypass the content's terrorist qualities.
Part 3
My Crush Was A Superstar
Chloé Galibert-Laîné
Chloé tracks French ISIS fighter Abu Abdallah Guitone through messages, videos, and postings across social media — leading to an uncomfortable first-person exploration of gender dynamics in ISIS recruitment strategies.
Part 4
The Spokesman
Kevin B. Lee
Kevin investigates the online traces of a British news reporter kidnapped and featured in Islamic State propaganda videos, tracing the collision between journalism, celebrity, and extremist media strategy.
About the Project
An interview with Chloé and Kevin on the project is available via Cineuropa, recorded at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where the project received its Eurimages Creative Labs Award.
Installation Version
An installation version of Bottled Songs premiered at True/False Film Festival 2020, presented by Memory. It is accessible at memory.is/bottled-songs — a platform for expanding the possibilities of cinema through networked experiences.
Connection to Afterlives
Bottled Songs is the direct predecessor to Kevin's feature Afterlives (2024), which continues and expands the project's investigation into extremist imagery, digital violence, and the ethics of looking — winning a Eurimages Lab Project Award and screening at BFI London Film Festival, DocLisboa, and Stockholm Film Festival.