The Right to the Ruins: Fictional Media Production and the Syrian Conflict

November 16, 2020 Part of "Art and Power in the Middle East: Past and Present" In Syria media creators have manipulated a limited, ambiguous autonomy to produce a thriving transnational television drama industry—one that has survived by responding to, and often challenging, the very conditions that have generated and sustained it. This talk explores the political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions of fictional media production during and about the Syrian conflict that began in 2011. Examining the work of a leading director, both celebrated for critiquing and vilified for colluding with the Syrian leadership, the talk reveals the complex challenges facing mass cultural producers operating in authoritarian-controlled and market-driven contexts. Speaker Christa Salamandra, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York