Page - 79 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

Activist Citizenship, Film and Peacebuilding | 79www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 73–89 are not a priori recognized in law”.39 On the contrary, as we will see in the film analysis, such “activist citizens” will often question the laws, and through these acts “citizens, strangers, outsiders and aliens emerge not as subjects already defined, but as ways of being with others”.40 In this sense we can argue that activism produces a sort of κρισις, a crisis41 that creates “a sense of the possible and of a citizenship that is yet to come”.42 In that respect activism is unpredictable and creative but also visionary: it proposes what is to be, instead of participating in what it is. Activism implies explora- tion of “new social relations and practices, through which new forms of personhood and politics are being created”.43 It is this creative exploration by filmmakers, which might seem to be “rupture in the order of things”,44 that brings in the moral quality, as an expression of freedom in the ontological sense.45 Their creative acts are not op- erating within totalitarian ideologies but are trying to escape the existing ideological constructs. PEACEBUILDING “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” –Matthew 5:9 As I have discussed, through transformative-artistic practices citizens and non-citi- zens claim the right to break the ties with the “existing social structures … which are seen as corrupt”46and to rebuild more just and peaceful societies. Paradoxically, violent means can be required to achieve that peace, but often the acts of individuals can be performed in non-violent ways, and I focus particularly on the “ripple effect” of non-violent acts and on what we can define as “good deeds”. Peacebuilding, par- ticularly in postconflict areas, involves having a “voice” and “being heard”. John Paul Lederach argues that “voice is the essence of being a person”,47 as such a voice both represents the aforementioned answerability to Others and Self and is an expression of being, both inward and outward.48 39 Isin/Nielsen 2008, 38. 40 Isin/Nielsen 2008, 41. 41 κρισις has been defined as judgment (human or divine), justice, the concept of determining the correctness of a matter; negatively, punishment, condemnation; see Mounce, William B., Greek Dictionary, https://billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/krisis [accessed 28 April 2016]. 42 Isin/Nielsen 2008, 4. 43 Nugent 2012, 281. 44 Isin/Nielsen 2008, 43. 45 Ontological freedom liberates from ideologies and oppressive systems that often impose identitarian politics and “othering” as a cultural model. 46 Nugent 2012, 281. 47 See Lederach 2005. 48 It is important to bear in mind that a voice can serve ideological purposes. Albert Hirschman argued that the greater the possibility of having a voice, the greater the chance of loyalty, and in this sense, having a “voice” is important as it serves as an alternative to “exit”. See Hirschman 1970, 36.