THE DOCUMENTARY AUDIT: LISTENING AND THE LIMITS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

NYU Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies

How does listening in documentary become a proxy for justice—and what other kinds of listening might be possible?

Michelson Theater

BOOK LAUNCH EVENTFriday, September 19, 2025 6:00–7:30 PM ETMichelson Theater, 721 Broadway, 6th floor<a href="https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/jaK2tQyXQ0a2qBGzDzr3fA#/registration" title="https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/jaK2tQyXQ0a2qBGzDzr3fA#/registration" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Also available on Zoom</a>How does listening in documentary become a proxy for justice—and what other kinds of listening might be possible?In The Documentary Audit: Listening and the Limits of Accountability (Columbia University Press, 2025), Pooja Rangan examines how documentary listening—through habits she calls neutral, entitled, and juridical—can reinforce structures of profiling, exclusion, and carceral capture, even when framed as progressive or ethical.This launch event brings together three respondents who take up the book’s invitation to think documentary and sound alongside raciolinguistics, disability access activism, and legal forensics:<ul><li>Lakshmi Padmanabhan (Film Scholar, Northwestern University)</li><li>Jordan Lord (Artist and Writer, Colorado College)</li><li>LaCharles Ward (Curator and Scholar, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)</li></ul>Together, they will explore how to refuse listening habits that discipline and punish, and how to reimagine accountability across media, law, and everyday life.Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.Please email accessibility needs related to this event to cmc673@nyu.edu before Friday, September 5, 2025.Use coupon code CUP20 to save 20% when ordering The Documentary Audit from Columbia University Press.<h3>Sponsors</h3>NYU Center for Media, Culture, and History, World Records Journal, Columbia University Press, Amherst College, NYU Center for Disability Studies, NYU Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies.This is an in-person event, open to the public. Prior registration is required. Non-NYU attendees will receive emailed instructions for building access and may be asked to present a government-issued photo ID upon arrival. NYU attendees must present their NYU ID.

THE DOCUMENTARY AUDIT: LISTENING AND THE LIMITS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

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THE DOCUMENTARY AUDIT: LISTENING AND THE LIMITS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

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