submitted by svanoe@augsburg.edu
The Feeling of Being Watched
Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker
Thursday, June 13th 6-9pm
Hagfors 150
Join CAIR MN and the Sabo Center this Thursday for the screening of the award winning feature film “The Feeling of Being Watched”. We have the honor of being joined by the filmmaker and activist Assia Boundaoui who will give us an intimate understanding of her film and families struggle with surveillance. At a time where police entrapment runs rampant and individuals are persecuted for their faith, it is more important now than ever to firmly understand the police state, surveillance, and how fear & manipulation have trumped our civil liberties and privacy. There will also be space for community members to share their thoughts and feelings on the surveillance of our community.
Film Synopsis: In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11, code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance. Assia struggles to disrupt the government secrecy shrouding what happened and takes the FBI to federal court to compel them to make the records they collected about her community public. In the process, she confronts long-hidden truths about the FBI’s relationship to her community. The Feeling of Being Watched follows Assia as she pieces together this secret FBI operation, while grappling with the effects of a lifetime of surveillance on herself and her family.
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