Dismantling Tech Fantasies (Short Film Programme) (Take One Action)

<b>BEYOND THE SCREEN:</b> After the screening, we’ll explore the complex interconnected web of human impact related to technologies apparently designed to simplify our lives. How do we retain our humanity amidst the cult of convenience? <i>Introduction and post-screening conversation will be presented with live captions. Access notes: Empty Rider contains mainly dark, animated images; Their Eyes contains mainly bright images, and some flashing images from the middle of the film; Notes from Gog Magog contains mainly dark images, and some sudden abrasive sounds and flashing imagery.</i> Prompt: interrogate the false promises and hidden costs of artificial intelligence. Generate: your own conclusions. AI, or artificial intelligence, seems to be infiltrating every corner of our existence. But while tech billionaires claim that AI is making life easier and more convenient, this comes at the alarming cost of an underclass of precarious labourers, exploitative supply chains, and environmental damage caused by its infrastructure – from the sharp increase in precious metal mining and fossil fuel emissions, to the gallons of water needed to cool data centers overheating from demand. From eye-opening documentary to cerebral and speculative sci-fi, this shorts programme prompts us to gaze past the false promises of AI and generate our own conclusions. <b>FILMS FEATURED:</b> <b><i>Empty Rider</i></b> (Lawrence Lek, UK/Switzerland, 2024, English, 15 min 20 sec) In this science fiction short, the sentient self-driving car Vanguard-3181 stands trial for attempting to murder their parent company’s CEO. <b><i>Their Eyes</i></b> (Nicolas Gourault, France, 2025, English/Spanish, 23 min) Online micro-workers from the Global South share their testimonies of being paid to painstakingly and manually label images: teaching self-driving cars to navigate the roads of the Global North. <b><i>Notes from Gog Magog</b></i> (Riar Rizaldi, Indonesia, 2022, 20 min) An exploration of the interconnection between ghost stories, tech company culture in South Korea, and the economy of logistics in Indonesia.DocumentaryPT59M152025-09-20
Lawrence Lek (<i>Empty Rider</i>)
Nicolas Gouralt (<i>Their Eyes</i>)
Riar Rizaldi (<i>Notes from Gog Magog</i>)
Dismantling Tech Fantasies (Short Film Programme) (Take One Action)"Dismantling Tech Fantasies (Short Film Programme) (Take One Action)"

Showtimes

September 20, 3:00 pm

Filmhouse Cinema