Revisiting HADHAD—a Conversation with Sean Grattan and Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió

Recently we invited film maker Sean Grattan and academic Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió to revisit Sean's 2012 film HADHAD, whose depiction of an unwelcome visitor now seems oddly prescient of a world dealing with Covid019 and authoritarian politics. Ostensibly a horror movie, HADHAD depicts a group of American suburbanites whose lives are upended by a mysterious visitor. Neither human nor animal, the HADHAD crouches silently, offering no clues to its purpose or origin. Much like HADHAD, the coronavirus and anti-democratic leadership has brought panic, disruption and disbelief: Where did these events come from? Are they real or imaginary? What do they tell us about the sustainability of our political and economic systems?

Here we present part 2 of this conversation, in which Sean and Manuel discuss language, technology and post-humanism in HADHAD, and the relationship between white supremacy and technology in the USA in 2020.