The Culturist Film Club x Jameel Arts Centre on July 18: Afterlives
Jameel’s Summer Cinema programme, in collaboration with The Culturist Film Club
Film 3 of 5:
I have been following Kevin B. Lee’s work for many years and happy to have the opportunity to show his debut feature length film, a thought provoking interrogation of extremist propaganda. We are overwhelmed with so many photos and videos and with the rise of AI and a decline in media literacy, I think this is an important film about how we engage with images and news about violence and power.
More information below.
Free to attend, but pre-registration is required.
AFTERLIVES
Kevin B. Lee, 2025, 88 min
Afterlives is a desktop documentary that critically engages with the historical and digital traces of extremist propaganda, questioning how images of violence circulate, mutate, and persist.
The film moves between virtual investigations and real-world encounters with artists, activists, and researchers who seek to resist the toxic effects of such media.
At its core is the figure of Medusa—a victim of violence whose gaze turned viewers to stone—invoked as a symbol of both the dangers and transformative potential of looking.
From museum archives to AI-generated reconstructions, the film explores how power structures, spanning from the colonial past to the digital age, shape the way we see and remember violence.
Can we ever truly look without being complicit?
And is there another way to care?
“Afterlives is a dedicated, reflective documentary, the bell of its urgency ringing far into the past and into the futures of images.” — Savina Petkova, The Film Stage
The screening will be followed by a discussion with brand strategist, arts writer, and educator Kevin Jones.
Date and time: July 18, 19:30-21:30
Venue: Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (location map)
Free to attend, please register here.
Director’s Bio:
Kevin B. Lee is a filmmaker and media researcher who has produced nearly 400 video essays exploring film and media. His award-winning Transformers: The Premake introduced the “desktop documentary” format. His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Berlinale, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as websites such as The New York Times and Mubi. He is the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). He co-leads the Swiss National Science Foundation research project “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies.”
Speaker’s Bio:
Kevin Jones is a brand strategist, arts writer, and educator who is interested in the self- representational strategies of art practitioners in the MENASA region. New York-born and Paris-bred, Kevin has lived in the Middle East since 2006, serving as UAE Desk Editor for the magazine ArtAsiaPacific, while contributing criticism both internationally and regionally. Kevin holds a BA with a double major English Literature/Journalism from Northwestern University. His MA is in Linguistics/Semiotics from La Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III). He is currently Artistic Director at Alserkal.
Links to the rest of the screenings:
Jameel’s Summer Cinema 2026: in collaboration with The Culturist Film Club
August 01 — Do You Love Me
August 15 — The Blazing Sun