Social Cinema: The Feeling of Being Watched (2018)

This film is a part of WUD Film's annual Social Cinema series in collaboration with the Havens Center for Social Justice at UW-Madison.

USA | 86 minutes | NR | Dir. Assia Boundaoui

In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the US before 9/11, code-named "Operation Vulgar Betrayal". With unprecedented access, "The Feeling of Being Watched" (2018) weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker's examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance. Assia struggles to disrupt the government secrecy shrouding what happened and takes the FBI to federal court to compel them to make the records they collected about her community public. In the process, she confronts long-hidden truths about the FBI's relationship to her community. "The Feeling of Being Watched" (2018) follows Assia as she pieces together this secret FBI operation, while grappling with the effects of a lifetime of surveillance on herself and her family.

"This should be required viewing for all Americans, but especially those who think they couldn't possibly be living in a surveillance state," - Leah Pickett, Chicago Reader

Assistive Screening Accommodations for Patrons with Disability: 

• Closed Captions and Visually Impaired Narration not available
• Assisted Listening Device Amplification available

These free screenings are intended for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff, and Union members and guests.