Is the "Neda" Video a Snuff Movie?

Hanna, thank you for the necessary astringency of your last post about the "Neda" video and the construction of a martyr mythology in the blogosphere’s reporting on Iran. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the entire unedited Neda video on YouTube; it feels too close to a snuff movie. Assuming this graphic clip really does document a young woman’s death at the hands of paramilitary snipers—something we lack the reporting to confirm—what gives us the right to watch it and forward to and fro as proof of our solidarity with the forces of democracy and reform in Iran (something that, as you point out, Mousavi is far from representing)? I wouldn’t want my own death, or that of someone I loved, to be instrumentalized in that way. (We don't, for example, treat the deaths of U.S. soliders abroad as YouTube-able moments.) And the fact that “Neda” is a young and pretty woman somehow adds to the ickiness of disseminating the scene of her murder (if that is indeed what the clip shows) as a propaganda tool.

There’s a quote from a Harvard professor billing himself as an “expert on the Internet” that appeared in two different NYT pieces on Iran last week: “The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful.” Power plus half-baked inanity make for a perilous combination, which is why I can’t help but be wary of the #iranelection fervor that’s been swelling my Twitter feed for the past week. The popular uprising in Iran has been thrilling to witness, and new technologies like Twitter are exciting both as tools for evading censorship on the ground and as platforms for citizen journalism abroad. But however freely flowing, information is only valuable insofar as it can be trusted. Western sympathizers convinced they’re manning the virtual barricades by turning their Twitter avatar photos green, resetting their locations to “Tehran,” and feverishly forwarding a graphic unsourced video of a young girl’s death strike me as both touchingly enthusiastic and dangerously inane.

Photograph of Iranian protesters by David McNew/Getty Images.

Comments

Ok, the Mohammed Aldura video

By: sharoncollinsr | Sat, 09/05/2009 - 01:19

Ok, the Mohammed Aldura video was never brought to your attention because you don't watch al Jazeera?You know full well that it, and a million other incendiary images aimed at defaming Israel...
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Snuff Movie

By: deniyal | Thu, 07/23/2009 - 01:16

Of Course the Neda Video Is a Snuff Movie. Yes, Dana , you're absolutely right that the Neda video, Team Building Activities UK | India Friendship | Conference Professionals

I feel bad,

By: fuckyoublog | Fri, 07/10/2009 - 19:42

My apology: http://nowihaveablog.tumblr.com/post/137957866/to-dana-stevens

Neda, myth, and martyr

By: Pamela Goldsteen | Thu, 06/25/2009 - 19:38

I posted more extensive remarks about this thread on Susanna Breslin's post. To sum up, speaking of this horrific video in the context of "martyr mythology," and turning the story of Neda Agha Soltan into a feminist issue, rather than an issue of human suffering is deliberately oversimplifying:

http://njhausfrau.blogspot.com/2009/06/neda-myth-and-martyr.html

Colage and Vanessa

By: Clearthinker | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 22:17

With each inane utterance you are each proving my point.This is the ONLY time anyone to my knowledge has questioned the authenticity of an image or video of an atrocity. Vanessa, don't be a blinkered dolt. When in the past have you assumed that people were less than utterly credulous about images from Gaza or the West Bank? And Colage, you dork, really, the Mohammed Aldura video was never brought to your attention because you don't watch al Jazeera?You know full well that it, and a million other incendiary images aimed at defaming Israel, were shown on media around the world. No one buys your openeyed professions of innocence, your simplistic obfuscations, except you and your pathetic, mindless ilk.

Huh?

By: Colage | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 12:15

I wasn't addressing your point, Clearthinker, since your straw man comment wasn't really germane to the conversation.

But if you want a response to that, no, I haven't been skeptical of pictures of Palestinian warzones. But, since I don't get Al Jazeera, I'm not exposed to those images. Nor have I been skeptical of images of Israeli, or Tamil, or Iranian suffering. Rather, I was being critical of the commenters who were attacking Ms. Stevens for her apparently heterodox (and exceedingly mild) rebuke of the video.

c'mon guys

By: Vanessa | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 11:22

There I was, in the second comment, defending people as less credulous than Dana Stevens seemed to think. Then today I find most of the other comments displaying just the sort of emotionality and lack of skepticism she ws describing. Way to prove me wrong, guys.

My comment.......

By: fuckyoublog | Fri, 07/10/2009 - 19:43

It can be found here:

http://nowihaveablog.tumblr.com/post/128267905/if-you-dont-have-any-thin...

Colage, Colage, Colage...

By: Clearthinker | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 20:39

Are you deliberately turning a blind eye to our point, sometimes made overtly, in my case, and sometimes not? Where is your critical eye when outrageous, in fact fabricated, images are used to support the pathetic biases of you and your ilk?Feel free to link us to a similar skeptical comment made by you in the past where it is the Amercian or Israeli ox that is being gored.

Snuff? I think not (... props to "Boo" Joe Fisher above)

By: LAWalker | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 18:39

Dana, I enjoy your work elsewhere and hope you'll reconsider the tone and message of your short post...

You're a film critic, so please take a look at what a "snuff movie/film" is (or was purported to be): a planned killing on film/video for entertainment purposes...

How does Neda's death relate to this?

Neda's death was captured on video by a bystander, and depicts in miniature the real conditions of a government using force against citizens gathering in protest.

I see people mainly sharing the video to help spread knowledge and inspire support - not for entertainment.

Of course in the immediate aftermath, we weren't getting the "full story" about Neda and we heard some exaggerations / embellishments...

But with every passing day, we're getting more clarity about the "real Neda" - do you really doubt the relevance of her death?