Visual Documentation and the State by Professor Feng-Mei Heberer
Thursday, March 9th, 12 – 1:30pm via Zoom
This talk revisits visual documentation and the documentary form in its intimate connection with state surveillance and the U.S. immigration and border police state specifically. Building on the work of self-ascribed “undocumented documentary filmmaker” Miko Revereza, I discuss the ways that visual documents such as the photograph have been wielded on behalf of U.S. immigration law and policy to control border crossings, and continue to serve as identificatory evidence in the age of social media. In this context, I explore how Revereza’s oeuvre can help us reimagine practices of visual documentation beyond its historical duty to identify and report.
Feng-Mei Heberer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Her book, Asians On Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism, is forthcoming with the University of Minnesota Press (2023). Complementing her academic work, she has been a programmer for several film festivals, including the Asian Film Festival Berlin.
