cyber cinema – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SO UNREAL – Review by Nadine Whitney

October 3, 2023October 9, 2023 Nadine Whitney AI, amanda kramer, Britt Brown, cyber cinema, Debbie Harry, documentary, fantastic fest 2023, scifi, So Unreal, virtual reality

In essence all gods are created by humanity as a way to explain the unknown or as a system of moral and ethical guidelines. That isn’t to say that spirituality is a falsehood, but it is perpetuated by earthly entities. In the digital age humanity created a new god – a cyber god of unlimited potential, and one that carried with it the capacity to gain sentience and turn on its maker. Amanda Kramer’s documentary So Unreal written in conjunction with Britt Brown and narrated by actor and musician Debbie Harry traces how cinema near the end of the millennia reacted to the anxiety of emerging technology and how films that might have been seen as time-capsule curiosities became remarkably prescient.

Interviews

Amanda Kramer and Britt Brown on SO UNREAL – Nadine Whitney interviews

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 Nadine Whitney AI, amanda kramer, Britt Brown, cyber cinema, Debbie Harry, documentary, scifi, So Unreal, virtual reality

Amanda Kramer and Britt Brown discuss the lure and fear of the early internet in So Unreal. Amanda Kramer is best known as a director of independent fiction films. Delighting and confounding audiences with such titles as Ladyworld, Give Me Pity!, and Please Baby Please. In a script written in conjunction with Britt Brown, Kramer delivers a stunning visual essay documentary So Unreal about “cyber cinema.” Nadine Whitney spoke to Kramer and Brown about their work that debuted at Fantastic Fest 2023.>