After Empire

This experimental film from the Belgian filmmaker Herman Asselberghs presents a very unusual description of events that have been flooding media channels all over the world in recent years. After Empire makes us reflect upon the influence of modified images on social events. However, the authors represent the alternatives to stories used in the media. At a time of multimedia and social networks, alternatives can be created by the participants. The film particularly serves as a commentary to Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s book entitled Empire, which was published in 2000, and which contains an extensive analysis of the contemporary world structure. According to this book, the keystone of the present day is the supremacy of globalisation. It weakens the role of nation states with the exception of the only remaining world power, the USA, which has now become the watchdog of the whole world. In contrast to the book, Asselbergh’s film takes the part of those protesting against the so-called global government. The 11th of September 2001, the date of the declaration of the war against terrorism, is not considered to be the beginning of “the world war of the 21st century”, but the 15th of February 2003. On this day, 30 million people expressed their disapproval of the “preventive” attack on Iraq and thus the new conflict, the war against Empire or global government, started. (Academia Film Olomouc)