Bottled Songs is an ongoing media project depicting strategies for making sense of online terrorist propaganda. Filmmakers and media researchers Chloé Galibert-Laîné and Kevin B. Lee compose letters addressed to each other, narrating their encounters with videos originating from the terrorist group the Islamic State (ISIS). They use a desktop documentary approach to trace and record their investigations playing directly upon their computer screens.

This screening presents four chapters from the project. “The Observer” and “Looking Into the Flames” delve deep into the details of individual ISIS videos. “My Crush was a Superstar” and The Spokesman” explore the lives of individuals who appear in the videos.

A critical account of the vulnerability of living in today’s online environment, the Bottled Songs project ultimately seeks to generate new ways to counter the terroristic qualities of online media. Central to this is engaging with diverse voices to make sense of the many dilemmas of engaging with the contemporary mediascape.

Viewers are invited to write letters to Chloé and Kevin, or to others brought to mind by Bottled Songs, to process and share their reflections on what they’ve seen. Please see further information about this in their programme notes.

Please be advised that this screening includes images of victims of violence and depicts experiences of trauma related to terrorist media.

Bottled Songs 1: The Observer | 2020 | 18′

Bottled Songs 2: Looking Into the Flames | 2020 | 18′

Bottled Songs 3: My Crush Was a Superstar | 2017 | 12′

Bottled Songs 4: The Spokesman | 2018 | 12′

World Premiere

Screening includes a Q&A with directors Chloé Galibert-Laîné and Kevin B. Lee, hosted by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz.

Bottled Songs was conceived with the support of the Harun Farocki Institut, sponsored by the Goethe Institut. It was further developed at m-cult (Helsinki) within the framework of the European Media Artists in Residence Exchange, funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.The installation version of Bottled Songs 1: The Observer and Bottled Songs 2: Looking Into the Flames is presented by Memory .A feature length version of the project is currently being developed with support of the Eurimages Creative Labs Project Award.

Available: Block 1 (Wed 9th Sept midday – Sat 12th Sept midnight BST)

Please note: this film is only available to view in the UK.

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Chloé Galibert-Laîné is a French researcher and filmmaker. She is currently preparing a research-creation PhD at the Ecole normale supérieure de Paris (SACRe - PSL University), and regularly teaches theory classes and artistic workshops about film and media, recently at the Université Paris 8 (FR), the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (NL), the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (DE), the Lucerne School of Art and Design (CH) and the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart (DE). Her work takes different forms (texts, films, video installations and live performances) and explores the intersections between cinema and online media. She is particularly interested in questions related to modes of spectatorship, gestures of appropriation and mediated memory.

Kevin B. Lee is a filmmaker, media artist, and critic. He has produced over 360 video essays exploring film and media. His award-winning Transformers: The Premake introduced the “desktop documentary” format, was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by Sight & Sound and screened in many festivals including Berlin Critics Week, Rotterdam International Film Festival and Viennale International Film Festival.

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