The ancient Chinese game of Go has long been considered a grand challenge for artificial intelligence. Yet in 2016, Google's DeepMind team announced that they would be taking on Lee Sedol, the world's most elite Go champion. AlphaGo chronicles the team as it prepares to test the limits of its rapidly-evolving AI technology. The film pits man against machine, and reveals as much about the workings of the human mind as it does the future of AI.
Director Adam Bhala Lough sets out to better understand the technology and people at the center of the AI boom. His quest sends him on a path towards the father of AI, OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. When he isn’t able to sit down with Altman himself, Adam travels to India to create an AI version of him to interview instead.
Composed of images and music produced with artificial intelligence, The Dream of Abel Gance explores the poetic imagination of filmmaker Abel Gance through his "crystal-house"—a hybrid space serving as a laboratory, film studio, and neural realm. Inspired by his writings on cinema, the film weaves a virtual temporality that allows us to envision the filmmaker’s forgotten utopias and dreams. The archive has become speculative, breathing new life into the long-standing promises of the Seventh Art.
El siglo de las luces
Oufti
Alexis Conran explores the claims that smartphones and tech companies might be listening in on users and collecting a vast amount of personal data. How do our phones seem to know everything?
We are engulfed in a digital tsunami—a toxic mix of artificial intelligence, state and corporate surveillance, and social media addiction controlled by powerful algorithms. Digital Tsunami shows how these are all elements of a digital ecosystem that is changing us as humans—just as the prophetic media guru Marshall McLuhan predicted 60 years ago. The unexpected consequences of this digital revolution have created an urgent need for strategies for survival.
In the found-footage film JUGGERNAUT, men from YouTube archives take center stage. They participate in an endless competition for the title of "THE BEST." To achieve this, the film uses documentary footage from the 1950s that extol the virtues of capitalism, as well as a flood of YouTube videos uploaded by men revealing their secrets to getting rich quickly.
my birthday wish
Be it as ‘Unreal Tournament Kid’, ‘KeyboardCrasher’, or ‘Angry German Kid’: Almost everywhere across the world this video of a youth who freaks out whilst playing on the computer and destroys his keyboard is known. Many still share it today as a meme when chatting without knowing that it was staged. Also: the young guy never uploaded the video himself. Powerless, he had to witness how it was shared and distorted countless times – how it destroyed a part of his life. Now, for the first time, Norman Kochanowski speaks with ZAPP about his story and the consequences of virality.
Stephen Hawking has warned that the creation of powerful artificial intelligence will be “either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity”. Inspired by Brian Christian’s study The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive, the filmmakers set out on an international investigation highlighting the effects of AI - scenes from our daily lives destructive and constructive.
We are witnessing a generational transformation of audiovisual entertainment. Independent work by internet creators, who have already managed to take first places in the celebrity rankings, is competing with television production. Parents panic when their children spend the whole day frozen in front of laptop and smartphone screens. The most watched is a communication bridge between two generations. What does it actually mean to be a YouTuber? And why have YouTubers become a phenomenon that already has an undeniable influence on society today? The feature-length documentary reveals the secrets of their success and looks into the everyday lives that they keep away from the cameras. It hears the opinions of everyone who is affected by watching and creating YouTube videos. Parents of children, marketing specialists, sociologists, psychologists and the viewers themselves.
Caminito del Rey is a feature-length documentary that takes viewers on a journey along one of the world's most spectacular and dangerous walkways. From its humble beginnings in 1901, when daring sailors hung suspended in mid-air to construct an impossible path, to its stunning restoration in 2015, this documentary explores the incredible story of a place that defied the laws of nature and time. It is not just a documentary about a place; it is a celebration of the human stories that have made it timeless.
Filmed across two years and five different cities, Dear Will Carne tells the story of an invisible illness.
True Tube
In this revealing program, noted author and economic activist Naomi Klein offers a lecture and a candid interview in which she expounds on the ideas at the heart of her best-selling book.
A documentary following the lives of two baby YouTube influencers and their family. Sisters Marghe and Giulia, aged 9 and 12, are known as “Marghe Giulia Kawaii” by their over 300,000 followers and their videos have been viewed millions of times. The documentary examines the effects of their new found fame and explores its influence on their private lives, where daily habits and online sharing seem to constantly overlap.
While gift shopping at an "enlightened" toy store, a mother and son are out of luck finding the latest Spider-Man and Transformers toys-because all this eccentric shopkeeper proudly sells are Rick Mercer-themed toys that are meant to inspire the next generation of Canadian youth.
The Cost of AI
Discover the untold story of the first Black Barbie and the pivotal role three trailblazing women at Mattel had in creating a doll who looked like them.