Around the world new critical practices of image production, scholarship, artmaking, activism, and legal action are evolving to combat political and humanitarian crises. To dissect these practices, this conference is grounded in the work of the anonymous filmmaking collective Abounaddara who has released one film each week since the start of the Syrian revolution, presenting all sides of the conflict to global audiences in an "emergency cinema" that includes over 300 films to date. Collectively Abounaddara's films seek to establish the right to the image as a recognized human right. Each panel addresses one aspect of Abounaddara's practice through diverse contexts to see how it is enacted in other global socio-political situations and to build an analysis of methods of worldwide. 

The three panels on October 23 reflect Abounaddara's filmmaking tactics and also mirror the three thematic shifts in the concurrent exhibition of their work at the Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School for Design. Every week, the exhibition will focus on a different strategy and feature a different selection of approximately 30 films. These central tactics are: portraiture and participation, subverting images, and open-endedness as tactic. The two panels on October 24 shift to the deeper implications underlying Abounaddara's work first through a discussion of organizing in the contemporary world and concluding with an evaluation of their core campaign of the right to the image for all, proposed as an amendment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each panel opens with a brief section of related Abounaddara's films, selected by the filmmakers.

Abounaddara. The Right to the Image conference launches The New School's public recognition of Abounddara as the recipients of the second Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics in conjunction with an exhibition, a film series, integration into classes across the university, and an upcoming publication.

DAY 1 – Thursday, October 22

The Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street

6:30 – 7:30 pm 
Prize Ceremony 
With David Van Zandt, President, The New School 
James-Keith Brown, Chair, Vera List Center Advisory Committee 
Carin Kuoni, Director/Curator, Vera List Center

Charif Kiwan, member and spokesperson, Abounaddara
Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

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