The Mad Man's Laughter
The Mad Man’s Laughter engages with the simulacrum of the so-called global war on terror, and the worlds of ubiquitous surveillance and simulations it has since spawned. By exploring the fictitious entities that are at play in the military-entertainment complex, the video embarks on a journey across artefacts and precepts shaped by modalities of power and control. Through the use of archival material and computer-generated imagery, sounds, and texts, we navigate both latent and visible spaces of violence carved by colonial-militaristic image production and the data used to generate algorithmic biases.
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Alaa MansourDirector
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Alaa MansourWriter
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TBA21Producer
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Ashkal AlwanProducer
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Project Type:Documentary, Other
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Runtime:42 minutes 17 seconds
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Completion Date:June 1, 2021
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Production Budget:3,000 EUR
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Country of Origin:Lebanon
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Language:Arabic, English, French
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Shooting Format:Analog video (Hi8)
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Aspect Ratio:4:3
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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TransmedialeBerlin
Germany
January 26, 2022 -
European Media Art FestivalOsnabrück
Germany
April 22, 2022
International competition -
NetherlandsKunstnernes Hus CinemaOslo
Norway
April 27, 2022 -
Impakt FestivalUtrecht
Netherlands
November 4, 2022 -
VideonaleBonn
Germany
March 31, 2023
Honorable Mention -
Ashkal AlwanBeirut
Lebanon
April 3, 2023
Alaa Mansour is an artist, filmmaker, and archivist based between Beirut and Marseille. Her work examines the histories of violence and explores the power of images in the age of necropolitics. Using a multidisciplinary approach she explores concepts of the sacred and the sublime and their potential of horror. She graduated from Université Paris 8 with a Masters in Arts & Creation – Filmmaking (2013). Her films Aïnata (2018) and The Mad Man’s Laughter (2021) have been screened internationally (Visions du Réel, Transmediale, European Media Art Festival, Impakt). She was shortlisted for the Han Nefkens Foundation – Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Award 2020.