A desktop documentary, Afterlives engages critically with the historical archives and digital traces of extremist propaganda, asking how images of violence spread, mutate and endure. Combining online investigation with encounters offline, it follows artists, activists and researchers who resist the poison of extremist media. At its centre is Medusa, herself a victim of violence, whose gaze turns people to stone: a symbol of looking as both dangerous and potentially transformative. From museum archives to AI image reconstruction, the film examines how power structures reaching from the colonial era into the digital age shape the way we see and remember violence. When we look at violence, can we really avoid complicity? Are there other ways of paying attention?
