The Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, in collaboration with the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film, TV and New Media and the NYU Game Center along with the Department of Art and Public Policy and NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge as co-sponsors, will host the North American screening of the film Returning Fire: Interventions in Video Game Culture, written and directed by Roger Stahl.
Following the Screening NYU’s Fred Ritchin Will Moderate a Panel Discussion with the Director and Wafaa Bilal, Joseph Delappe, and Anne-Marie Schleiner
The film examines the culture of war-themed video games through work of three pioneering artists and activists: Joseph Delappe, Anne-Marie Schleiner, and Wafaa Bilal.
Returning Fire (Media Education Foundation, 2011, 45 min.) documents how the three artists moved dissent from the streets to our screens, infiltrating war games in an attempt to break the hypnotic spell of "militainment," and thereby forcing us to think critically about what it means when the clinical tools of real-world killing become forms of consumer play. Immediately following the screening there will be a panel discussion, moderated by Fred Ritchin, professor and associate chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging, and featuring the film’s director and artists.
The screening will be held on Fri., Oct. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place), Room 006 (lower level). Subway: N&R (8th St. Broadway). At 8 p.m., following the screening and panel discussion, the filmmaker and artists will be honored with a reception in the Gulf + Western Gallery of the Tisch School, located at the rear of lobby of 721 Broadway. A photo ID is required when entering the building. Admission the event is free but an RSVP is required: http://nyureturningfire.eventbrite.com/
Film director Roger Stahl is associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Georgia. In 2010, he published a book Militainment, Inc and produced a documentary of the same title in 2007. Joseph Delappe is a professor of art at the University of Nevada, Reno. Game designer, writer and artist Anne-Marie Schleiner teachesgame design in the Communication and New Media Program at the National University of Singapore. Wafaa Bilal is assistant arts professor in the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. For further information, call 212.998.1930, or visit www.photo.tisch.nyu.edu.
The Department of Photography & Imaging is an intensive four-year BFA program centered on the making and understanding of images. It is a diverse department embracing multiple perspectives. The students work in virtually all modes of analog, digital, and multimedia photo-based image making, exploring photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression. For further information, visit www.photo.tisch.nyu.edu.