The Feeling of Being Watched virtual screening and discussion

The Feeling of Being Watched - Two women wearing headscarves seen from behind walking across a parking lot.

Dissonance, Information and Technology Services and the Wallace House invite you to participate in a complimentary viewing of the film The Feeling of Being Watched, and accompanying post-viewing discussion. 

Algerian-American investigative journalist, filmmaker, and Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow Assia Boundaoui, grew up outside of Chicago, in an Arab-American neighborhood where most people believed they had been under surveillance for over a decade. In search of the truth, Assia began an investigation that eventually produced tens of thousands of FBI documents proving her hometown was indeed the subject of one of the most extensive counterterrorism investigations conducted in the United States pre-9/11.  

Speaking about surveillance in minority communities in The Feeling of Being Watched – an interview with the director, Assia Boundaoui, Assia asserts, “The more you know about what the FBI actually does and what they are capable of, the more paranoid you become. The tactics the FBI uses, the patterns that have shown up in how they do things. They are not actually finding or stopping terrorism in our communities. They are just causing trauma.” 

Join us for a virtual screening of The Feeling of Being Watched from March 28, 2022, through April 7, 2022. Then on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 4 p.m., Assia, moderator and director of the Wallace House Lynette Clemetson, U-M School of Information PhD student Tanisha Afnan (UMSI), and assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science Roya Ensafi will discuss the film, surveillance in minority communities, and how that surveillance impacts individuals. Add the Zoom webinar to your calendar.

Author: Jennifer Wilkerson, School of Information

Jen is the project/change manager with School of Information. You can reach her at jmruk@umich.edu.