Experiencing Interruptions?

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.

  • Alaa Mansour
    Director
  • Alaa Mansour
    Writer
  • TBA21
    Producer
  • Ashkal Alwan
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Other
  • Runtime:
    42 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Lebanon
  • Language:
    Arabic, English, French
  • Shooting Format:
    Analog video (Hi8)
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Transmediale
    Berlin
    Germany
    January 26, 2022
  • European Media Art Festival
    Osnabrück
    Germany
    April 22, 2022
    International competition
  • NetherlandsKunstnernes Hus Cinema
    Oslo
    Norway
    April 27, 2022
  • Impakt Festival
    Utrecht
    Netherlands
    November 4, 2022
  • Videonale
    Bonn
    Germany
    March 31, 2023
    Honorable Mention
  • Ashkal Alwan
    Beirut
    Lebanon
    April 3, 2023
Director Biography - Alaa Mansour

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.

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