SHADOW WORLD: Screening and Q&A with director Johan Grimonprez

Join us for a screening of Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (2016), followed by a conversation with director Johan Grimonprez. Hosted by Columbia University Professor of Film and Media, Behrang Garakani. As urgent today as when it was released, Shadow World exposes the international arms trade and the political and corporate interests that sustain it. Based on Andrew Feinstein’s acclaimed book by the same name, the film brings together expert interviews and archival footage to argue that corruption is central to the business of war. It examines how fear becomes a political currency, public policy serves private profit, and conflict becomes an enduring commercial interest. Following the screening, Garakani and Grimonprez will discuss the film’s continuing relevance, the relationships between war, profit, and political power, and cinema’s capacity to challenge the stories through which we understand the world. The conversation will include questions from the audience. About Johan Grimonprez Johan Grimonprez is a filmmaker and artist whose work explores the relationships between media, politics, and the collective imagination. Working across art and cinema, he connects intimate stories with the larger forces of globalization and questions the role of fear in shaping public life. His feature films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), Double Take(2009), Shadow World (2016), and the Oscar-nominated Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024). His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including the Centre Pompidou and Tate. About Behrang Garakani Behrang Garakani is an adjunct assistant professor of Film and Computer Science for the School of the Arts and Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, respectively.