Film Magistery #4: The Lives of Others/Surveillance

In the fourth episode of Film Magistery Dino talks about surveillance and how the society is subdued the heavy  tracking from many different sides. As the reference to the theme the  German film The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, 2006) is chosen to be discussed and how East Germany’s security police, the Stasi,  kept the whole nation under its firm surveillance. Bentham’s concept of  Panopticon is mentioned as an important element in discussion about  surveillance. But what does surveillance mean to us? Does it concern us on a  personal level or are we just saying “I don’t care; they can monitor me  anywhere and anytime – I have nothing to hide”? But what when  surveillance is undertaken by private companies, domestic or foreign  governments? Dino asks if a society should passively accept surveillance  or perhaps contest it and demand from politicians to legislate and  control it. There is also a mentioning of some other examples of films with surveillance as the main theme: The Conversation, Minority Report, Caché, Brazil, Rear Window etc. Relevant links: The Lives of Others (IMDb) The Lives of Others (Letterboxd) Film Magistery YouTube channel Surveillance (Wikipedia) Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison David Phillips – Identity and Surveillance Play in Hybrid Space Online Territories: Globalization, Mediated Practice and Social Space, 2011. Julia Angwin – Dragnet Nation Hubertus Knabe – The Dark Secrets of a Surveillance State (Ted Salon)