All Light, Everywhere

Theo Anthony's 2021 documentary questions the assumption that the recorded image is neutral. It begins in the factory and training seminar of a company that manufactures police body cameras, then branches into the shared history of photography, weapons and surveillance. The connection Anthony draws is technical: some of the first moving-image devices derived from weapons design, and the language of the camera has been related to the language of aiming from the start. The documentary does not leave this as an assertion but demonstrates it with examples. The most striking section is the training in which police officers are told what the camera sees. The gap between what a camera records and what counts as evidence in court opens up there. The film also keeps questioning its own way of telling. Who it's for: those who like essay films and thinking about media and surveillance. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a straightforward account of a subject; the documentary branches as it goes and advances no single thesis.