The Fear That has 1000 Eyes : : Cities in the age of Terrorism

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How do contemporary cities cope in the age of terrorism? German filmmakers Dagmar Brendecke and Walter Brun's interesting documentary explores how several major European metropolises have addressed that challenge, not only through increasing surveillance, but also integrating the act of monitoring people into the very design of urban spaces. In other words, we re long past the idea of merely attaching cameras to buildings in order to spy on passersby. A dozen years after the events of September 11, 2001, visual monitoring has become organically woven into the places people congregate for work, shopping, or recreation something that a new generation accepts as normal. The film begins in London, where 20,000 official or private (i.e., commercial business) cameras are so pervasive that almost any public movement by residents and visitors is captured on a screen somewhere. Viewers are reminded that modern terrorist activity in London goes back decades to the early bombings by the Irish Republican Army. Such a history necessitated a ring of steel security approach, which includes random checkpoints. Brendecke and Brun then look at similar efforts in Bern, Berlin, and Madrid, where security measures are intended to make people feel safe under a semblance of normal living. Informative, provocative, and often disturbing, The Fear That Has 1000 Eyes reminds us of the dangerous times we live in and of the precarious balance between public safety and individual freedom and privacy.
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