Film Screening: "All Static and Noise" (David Novack, 2023)

The event begins at 7PM (Eastern Time) with opening remarks by Professor Ralph Litzinger (Cultural Anthropology). Following the documentary screening, stay for a conversation with producers Jewher Ilham and Janice Englehart, moderated by Professor Litzinger.

About the film

Jewher, a Uyghur teen from China with little English, lands in the U.S. after she is violently separated from her father at the Beijing airport as he is detained. Abduweli, a linguist and poet, imprisoned and tortured for teaching Uyghur language to 6-year-olds, makes his way to Istanbul upon his release. Testimony and action from survivors of China’s network of “re-education camps" and their families, in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Europe and the United States, infuse All Static & Noise with an urgency that exposes the mass brutality of state-sponsored oppression in western China.

Together these voices highlight the moral dilemma between risking the safety of families back home by speaking out and the necessity of exposing atrocities in the hope that global awareness will bring change. With each voice we are brought closer to one of the most egregious human rights disasters of our moment.

All Static & Noise honors those willing to speak out and poses difficult questions that are imperatives in our inter-connected global economy of the 21st century.

Director David Novack and producer Janice Englehart bring together collaborators from around the world in a film, born of tragedy and infused with an inspired sense of hope, that reminds us that in the darkest of times, the human spirit shines brightest in the company of others.

About the speakers

Jewher Ilham is Associate Producer of All Static & Noise, an author, and an advocate for the Uyghur community as well as for her imprisoned father, economist Ilham Tohti. During the making of All Static & Noise, Jewher hosted production in Washington, DC and Bloomington, IN. She was hugely instrumental in facilitating community engagement during production and post-production and advised the team on important aspects of the Uyghur experience. She provided expert advice, contributed archival footage, and connected the team with experts, witnesses, and translators. She also brought in many of the film’s participants.

Jewher has testified before the U.S. Congress and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published op-eds in The New York Times, CNN and the Guardian, and received numerous international awards on behalf of her father including the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize. In 2015, she recounted her experiences in her book, Jewher Ilham: A Uyghur’s Fight to Free Her Father. Her second book, Because I Have To: The Path to Survival, the Uyghur Struggle was released in 2022. Jewher currently works at the Worker Rights Consortium as Forced Labor Project Coordinator and serves as a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour.

Janice Englehart co-wrote and produced All Static & Noise. Her recent work brings together 10 years of collaboration with visual and performing artists in China, previous experience as a therapist and rights advocate, and the belief that creative storytelling is an essential tool to challenge power dynamics that threaten our collective wellbeing. This is Janice’s first feature-length documentary film. Her vision for making the film was largely inspired by her participation as an interviewer in Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Project. Janice received her Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and German from the University of Notre Dame and Masters degrees in public health and social work from Columbia University.

Official trailer

Parking Information:

General information about directions to the Rubenstein Film Theater and nearby parking can be found via the link below. The Campus Drive Lot, located at the corner of Campus Drive and Anderson Street, will open at 6:15PM. Note: entrance to this lot is on Anderson St.; 30 spaces are available.

Attendees for the film screening of All Static & Noise are welcome to park in this lot until the end of the event without needing to pay the usual parking fee (administered through Pay-By-Phone). This is a special arrangement specifically for this screening and discussion.

_{event co-sponsors: Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program (AADS); Cinematic Arts at Duke (Screen/Society); Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES); Department of Cultural Anthropology; Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute; Duke Islamic Studies Center (DISC); and program in International Comparative Studies}