Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00016753
Event
New America NYC
Event; New America NYC The Feeling of Being Watched A Social Cinema Screening
Peter Burgess
In Bridgeview, Illinois, the tight-knit Arab-American community where Assia Boundaoui grew up, neighbors regularly spotted unfamiliar black vans parked on their streets and repairmen climbing telephone poles in the middle of the night. They grew to accept unexpected home visits from men in dark suits and came to believe they had been under surveillance for more than a decade.
In her riveting new film, The Feeling of Being Watched, journalist and New America Fellow Assia Boundaoui investigates the experiences of her family and neighbors during what she discovers is one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations ever conducted in the US before 9/11, code-named 'Operation Vulgar Betrayal.' In a fight for transparency and the citizens' right to know, Boundaoui files Freedom of Information Act requests for FBI files. After months of government delays, she takes them to court to compel them to make the records they collected on her community public. The request yields 33,120 pages of FBI records which never resulted in convicting anyone of terrorism.
On June 5, join New America NYC at Betaworks Studios for a special screening of The Feeling of Being Watched and a conversation that considers the effects of a lifetime of surveillance and looks at the work being done to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all citizens.
PARTICIPANTS
Assia Boundaoui @assuss Director and Producer, The Feeling of Being Watched Class of 2019 National Fellow
Michael German Former FBI Special Agent Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program Fellow
Azmat Khan @AzmatZahra Contributing Writer, the New York Times Magazine Class of 2017 ASU Future of War Fellow
The Feeling Of Being Watched: A Social Cinema Screening
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST BETAWORKS STUDIOS, 29 LITTLE WEST 12TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10014