The recent proliferation of autocratic or autocratically inclined powers, coupled with a growing decline in democracy worldwide, makes political governance a major issue at the beginning of the 21st century. The association of these autocrats with numerous billionaires gives rise to the emergence of plutocratic governments, leading to numerous despotic deviations. These forms of power impose strict controls over their images, whether democratic or nondemocratic, suppressing the press, television, and internet.
One of the aims of this course is to examine the concepts of power and counter-power through the analysis of a wide range of contemporary films (documentaries, fiction, films based on archives, "desktop movies," experimental essays). How can power in action be filmed, whether democratic or nondemocratic? What do these images reveal about powers often underpinned by populist dynamics? What filmic forms and aesthetics can be associated with images of power and counter-power? How can the struggles led by counter-powers be filmed?
In a second phase, the course will focus on images of power produced by power and civic counter-powers, within the context of massive circulation of images on social media and their remediations across various platforms. It will aim to understand whether and how these images contribute to an expanded war of (counter-)power.