Creating the Witness: Film and Human Rights Advocacy

Dr Leshu Torchin, University of St Andrews
24 October 2013, 4.00-6.00pm, W/222
Chair: Fred Yeates, SPS Student

Seminar synopsis

The faith in the power of knowledge and visuality is strong. 'If people only knew, they would do something' is a belief that underpins the hopes of journalists, human rights workers and even scholars. However, the path from exposure to action is neither direct nor self-evident. A key question remains: 'What role do audio-visual media play in mobilising audience response to distant suffering?' To answer this question, the paper introduces the notion of 'witnessing publics' a concept born from the integrated frameworks of testimony and the public sphere before turning to a case study: an early period of humanitarian activism, when organisations and audiences responded to the Armenian genocide.

Leshu Torchin

Leshu Torchin is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews. Her interest in film and video activism has lead to a range of publications exploring the subject including her monograph, Creating the Witness: Documenting Genocide on Film Video and the Internet, Film Festivals and Activism (co-edited with Dina Iordanova) and Moving People, Moving Images: Cinema and Trafficking in the New Europe co-authored with William Brown and Dina Iordanova. She has also explored the use of video in campaigns for Roma social inclusion, the transmedia campaign of Live 8, and Invisible Children's notorious Kony 2012 campaign video.