Thousands and thousands of people are flooding the streets. Since 2010 the new global wave of protest has not once abated. From the London student movement to the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa and the recent protests in Istanbul, citizens are manifesting their dissatisfaction and demanding more political participation. Their new weapon is the camera. Mobile telephones, “iPads”, mini digital appliances and professional high-definition cameras serve as witnesses, sources of information and of evidence. This flood of images rising up from below constitutes a counter-narrative to the official media. Like visual magnets, they draw thousands of eyes, bodies gather around them, a new audience emerges, goes into the streets, leading to ever new images. The images transcend their own amplitude, growing into a new, emotional, collective political space, becoming active and generating more activity.

The Programme Das Volk fordert den Sturz des Bildes [The people demand the fall of the image] derives its title from one of the most well-known slogans of the Arab Spring, „El shab youreed eskat el nizam!“, [the people demand the fall of the regime]. Films will be shown which make palpable the way film itself has been transformed from a flat projection to an active social space.