Representing the Disappeared Body: Videos of Force-Feedings at Guantánamo

Abstract: This article focuses on the force-feedings inflicted on Guantánamo detainees and the efforts to make visible their violence visually and legally. It examines three visual representations of the force-feedings: a government video demonstrating the feedings on an absent body; a video produced by the legal charity Reprieve demonstrating the feedings on hip-hop star Yasiin Bey; and the videos recording the actual feedings of hunger striker Abu Wa’el Dhiab, whose legal case first revealed the existence of these videos. The majority of the article centers on the Dhiab case and interprets the debates over the government’s justifications for force-feedings and its ostensible need to keep evidence of its abuses disappeared.

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