Creating the witness : documenting genocide on film, video, and the Internet / Leshu Torchin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Torchin, Leshu.

Series:

Visible evidence ; v. 26.

Visible evidence ; 26

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Documentary films--History and criticism.

Documentary films.

Genocide in motion pictures.

Genocide in mass media.

Physical Description:

viii, 267 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2012]

Summary:

Creating the Witness examines the role of film and the Internet in creating virtual witnesses to genocide over the past hundred years. The book asks, how do visual media work to produce witnesses-audiences who are drawn into action? The argument is a detailed critique of the notion that there is a seamless trajectory from observing an atrocity to intervening. According to Leshu Torchin, it is not enough to have a camera: images of genocide require an ideological framework to reinforce the messages the images are meant to convey. Torchin presents wide-ranging examples of witnessing and genocide, including the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust (engaging film as witness in the context of the Nuremberg trials), and the international human rights organization WITNESS and its sustained efforts to use video to publicize human rights advocacy and incite action.

With a historical and comparative approach, Torchin's broad survey of media and the social practices around it investigates the development of popular understandings of genocide to achieve recognition and response-both political and judicial-ultimately calling on viewers to act on behalf of human rights. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: screen media and witnessing publics

To acquaint America with ravished Armenia

Witness for the prosecution: films at Nuremberg

Reflections on the world stage: imagining fields of witnessing for Rwanda and the Balkans

The work of WITNESS: negotiating the challenges of video advocacy

iWitnesses and citizentube: focus on Darfur

Conclusion: testimonial encounters and tempering the celebratory narrative.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780816676224

0816676224

9780816676231

0816676232

OCLC:

788269408