ThoughtGallery.org > CONSCIENTIOUS PROJECTIONS: PROJECT X + THE OATH

CONSCIENTIOUS PROJECTIONS: PROJECT X + THE OATH

At 33 Thomas Street in Downtown Manhattan stands a 550-foot tall brutalist slab of concrete. Utterly lacking in windows, the building, owned by AT&T, is unlike any in the area. In November 2016, an investigation by The Intercept revealed that the building is also home to an NSA surveillance site, code-name TITANPOINTE, used to monitor phone calls and internet data. The reveal, which further verified the collaboration between AT&T and the NSA, has led many to worry about violations of the 4thAmendment and illegal monitoring of citizens, while others have defended NSA practices as a necessary compromise for the sake of national security.

For our April Conscientious Projections event, we will screen Project X, Field of Vision’s short documentary about TITANPOINTE directed by investigative journalist and filmmaker Henrik Moltke and Laura Poitras, Field of Vision’s co-creator and the director of Citizenfour. In addition, we will also screen Laura Poitras’ 2010 film The Oath, about Salim Hamdan, who served as the driver for Osama Bin Laden, was detained at Guantanamo Bay for six years and convicted first at a military tribunal of terrorist-related charges and then in civilian court but won appeals against both convictions. The film juxtaposes Hamdan’s trial with the life of Abu Jandal, his brother-in-law in Yemen and a former bodyguard to bin Laden, examining the lives of both men to illuminate regional attitudes toward Al-Qaeda and U.S. foreign policy.

Taken together, the two films create a conversation about the expansion of the surveillance state, its relationship to an escalating concern with national security, and the United States’ repeated intervention since 9/11 beginning with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Joining us for that conversation will be Henrik Moltke as well as Project X’s producer, Yoni Golijov.











When: Mon., Apr. 17, 2017 at 7:45 pm

At 33 Thomas Street in Downtown Manhattan stands a 550-foot tall brutalist slab of concrete. Utterly lacking in windows, the building, owned by AT&T, is unlike any in the area. In November 2016, an investigation by The Intercept revealed that the building is also home to an NSA surveillance site, code-name TITANPOINTE, used to monitor phone calls and internet data. The reveal, which further verified the collaboration between AT&T and the NSA, has led many to worry about violations of the 4thAmendment and illegal monitoring of citizens, while others have defended NSA practices as a necessary compromise for the sake of national security.

For our April Conscientious Projections event, we will screen Project X, Field of Vision’s short documentary about TITANPOINTE directed by investigative journalist and filmmaker Henrik Moltke and Laura Poitras, Field of Vision’s co-creator and the director of Citizenfour. In addition, we will also screen Laura Poitras’ 2010 film The Oath, about Salim Hamdan, who served as the driver for Osama Bin Laden, was detained at Guantanamo Bay for six years and convicted first at a military tribunal of terrorist-related charges and then in civilian court but won appeals against both convictions. The film juxtaposes Hamdan’s trial with the life of Abu Jandal, his brother-in-law in Yemen and a former bodyguard to bin Laden, examining the lives of both men to illuminate regional attitudes toward Al-Qaeda and U.S. foreign policy.

Taken together, the two films create a conversation about the expansion of the surveillance state, its relationship to an escalating concern with national security, and the United States’ repeated intervention since 9/11 beginning with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Joining us for that conversation will be Henrik Moltke as well as Project X’s producer, Yoni Golijov.

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