Through an exploration of the shared histories of cameras, weapons, policing, and justice, Theo Anthony’s 2021 documentary All Light, Everywhere probes the growing presence of surveillance technologies and their claim to objectivity. Anthony embeds himself in communities for whom this question is not theoretical: a company building a business in aerial surveillance of Baltimore protests; a police workshop on how to exploit the limits of the body camera; and the headquarters of Axon Enterprise, the largest manufacturer of body cameras in the United States and the maker of the Taser. Mixing contemporary investigation with archival research and featuring a mesmerizing score by Baltimore-based electronic musician Dan Deacon, All Light, Everywhere exposes the fraying seams of photographic objectivity and argues that the struggle for truth is mainly a struggle for control.
Filmmaker Theo Anthony will join moderator Althea Wasow (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of All Light, Everywhere.