ABSTRACT
This essay examines the intersections of cinematic and spatial imaginaries, focusing on what Michael J. Shapiro describes as the new ‘violent cartographies’ created by US foreign initiatives in the present century. Violent cartographies enact particular discourses regarding place and identity, built on radical dichotomies and oppositions between enmity and belonging, friend and foe. Drawing on recent theoretical work on the relationship between armed conflict and moving images, this essay analyses the contrasting approaches to drone warfare adopted by two contemporary films on the subject: the British-South African coproduction Eye in the Sky (Gavin Hood, 2015) and the Norwegian documentary Drone (Tonje Hessen Schei, 2014). As this essay argues, both movies elaborate dissimilar forms of ethical criticism on drone military technologies through specific filmmaking techniques.
