|
|
|
Destroying
the Old Images by
Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur “The
government describes us as ‘clandestine’, as the ‘illegals’. Through
this we are considered guilty at the outset and an entire arsenal of legal and
technical means can be used against if need be. (…) We have rejected the label
“illegals” from the beginning and claimed instead that we are women, men,
and children and would kindly like to be viewed as such. The label ‘illegal’
has a negative connotation, that of a pariah or parasite. Illegals are invisible;
those that hide, cause trouble, and could be dangerous. But now we are here,
fully visible, and we want it to stay like this! This must be respected. We have
to destroy the old images.” [1] In
collaboration with “The Voice Refugee Forum” the film Forst works
through a cinematic controversy with the structural violence which illegalizes
Europe-wide existence and constructs lawlessness as described by the long time
speaker of the organization “Sans Papiers”, Madjigène Cissé. The
Question of the Language of Film In view of
the European stronghold, the normalization of its repressive structures, and
it’s connection with the governing image of ‘illegals’ as threatening or
at best pitiful objects seem to be absolutely central to the question of Forst’s
language of film; this breaks through this representation structure of Cissé’s
“old images”. The controversy of film as a social experience of the
production of meaning in connection with the question of the language of film,
which uncovers the normalized and deeply anchored repressive structures, stands
in the foreground. Forst
uses the cinematic medium to move within the conflict area between hard-won
political subjectivity and the visualization of controlling structures. The
position taken in the opening citation from Madjiguène Cissé of “we” is
the same as that of the autonomous resistance movement “Sans Papiers” in
France. The central process of making oneself politically visible is mirrored in
this hard-earned position as the speaker. An act of speaking, which made the
paradigm of “illegals” speechless, deconstructs and breaks through
disenfranchised subjects. This brings us back to the aforementioned conflict
area in which Forst’s cinematic controversy moves. In this context the
question arises, which film language is able to cinematically negotiate the
structural violence against the background of hard-earned political subjectivity? The
Powerful View Forst
chooses an “eerie” visual language. A forest seen through a night vision
camera makes visible the structural dimensions of the violence of illegalization.
The course-grained black and white images are reminiscent of newspaper
photographs. Forst begins with a car ride that is drawn through the entire film
like a red thread. The audience does not join in on the ride but rather observes
the car’s journey through the forest from a bird’s eye view. Forst
grapples with the structure of the powerful view. It is the view of the
non-illegalized and in this sense, the privileged majority. In showing the view
of those associated with this position the film makes this self-evident power
position explicit. The powerful view adopts a surveillance-like, distanced,
observing perspective. Power
visualized in this manner and the threat of this view connected with it
positions the audience in the context of the relationship between dominant power
and powerlessness. [2] This
practice of the cinematic production of meaning questions the objectivity of the
powerful “normal” view. In the invisibility, structural violence is made
visible on many levels; the normalization of absolute disenfranchisement is
fundamentally challenged. In the
beginning the audience observes the car ride through the wooded setting in icy
silence during which the story of a soundless voice is readable in fading
subtitles. In the figurative normalcy that is communicated through a sober
distance, the car ride and the subjective readable description of this ride as
an act of violence create a tension filled contrast. The audience approaches the
forest slowly. Within the hard-won space of the forest activists from “The
Voice” project their different perspectives and tell of the visualized
structural violence that is directed at them, yet not as monolithic unified mass
of disenfranchised subjects. As political subjects and participants in the fight
for their rights they remain in a way invisible. The speaking roles in Forst are
taken solely by “the voices” of activists. The audience listens but is
unable to see. Their powerful view
is static in its societal power position and remains threatening for the
speaking political subjects. The consequence of this power structure is that the
voices on the image plane have to elude this view. The audience does not see who
is speaking. Hard-won space within a “forest system” is often visualized in
abstract images. Forms move cautiously in this “system”; they assert
themselves, attach posters to trees, and confer with each other. Forst
challenges established representation traditions. In contrast to the dominant
victimizing imagery codes, the audience is not fed pictures of “suffering
faces” that appeal to their empathy. Fields
of Tension Forst
focuses its cinematic debate on structural dimensions of violence with haunting
results. The field of tension between the revealing repressive structures and
the visualized invisibility of political subjects of the resistance nevertheless
persists and questions the selected and still developing film language. On one
hand, “the old images” are being destroyed and the profound dimensions of
the illegalization of existence are being visualized, while on the other hand
the dimension presented by Madjiguène Cissé of “invisibility that hides in
the forest” is reproduced. [1]
Cissé, Madjiguène (2002): Papiere für Alle. Die Bewegung der Sans Papiers in
Frankreich. Berlin, S.73 f. [2]
Machold, Abi-Sara: Repräsentation ist niemals unschuldig! Videostatement
in: Here to stay! Weblog der
DIAGONALE 2005
|
