Toward a cinema of revolution

18 days in Tahrir Square

Abstract

It has been said that revolutions are always unthinkable before they occur and inevitable after. As such, much writing about the Egyptian revolution has attempted to retroactively predict it while missing the larger picture. However, pictures of Tahrir Square are hard to miss. As revolutionaries, regime, and military contested Tahrir through spectacular imagery, Al Jazeera broadcast the square live.