As part of the Collective Futures Festival, Batikh Batikh partners with cineSPEAK to present Super Surveillance, screening Assia Boundaoui’s film The Feeling of Being Watched (2018). The film follows journalist Assia Boundaoui who investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, and uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community.
About the film's director: Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian-American filmmaker and investigative journalist. Her debut short film, J'ADORE NAWAL, set in a Muslim women’s hair salon in Chicago for HBO Documentary Films premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Her award-winning feature length directorial debut, THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED a documentary investigating a decade of FBI surveillance in Assia's community, had its world premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was nationally broadcast on PBS “POV” in 2019. The film went on to win the jury award for Best Documentary and Best Editing at the Woodstock Film Festival and was awarded audience awards at the Blackstar Film Festival and Camden International Film Festival in 2018. Assia was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 2018 "25 New Faces of Independent Film,” in 2020 was honored with the Livingston Award for national reporting and in 2022 was given a United States Artist award. Assia was a fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, where she incubated a community co-created, site-specific installation, the Inverse Surveillance Project. Her most recent film, ESTRANGED LETTERS, a short documentary following the creative process of an Iranian-American artist, had its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2024.
Event Flow: Doors at 6:30 PM. Film at 7:00 PM
Ticketing: Tickets are a suggested donation of $10-30 and 100% of proceeds will go to mutual aid in Sudan and Palestine. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Important Note: The Rotunda is wheelchair accessible and masks are REQUIRED.
The Feeling of Being Watched: Journalist Assia Boundaoui sets out to investigate long-brewing rumors that her quiet, predominantly Arab-American neighborhood was being monitored by the FBI.
More details and tickets HERE