At 74 years, the tireless German director of such classics as Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, the Wrath of God continues its production both in the realm of fiction (in 2016 premiered Salt and Fire ) and as always fascinating documentaries (two this season). After Into the Inferno , work on volcanoes that is available on Netflix, Cinema Art BAMA offers this film that explores the origins of the Internet and how the advancement of technology has changed for good and bad behavior in recent decades.
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (USA / 2016). Written and directed by Werner Herzog. Interviewees: Joydeep Biswas, Shawn Carpenter, Hilarie Cash, Christina Catsouras, Christos Catsouras, Danielle Catsouras, Kira Catsouras, Leslie Catsouras, Sam Curry, Danny Hillis, Marcel Just, Robert Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Laurence M. Krauss, Felix Jay Lockman, Tom Mitchell, Kevin Mitnick, Elon Musk, Theodor Holm Nelson, Raj Rajkumar, Diane Schou, Sebastian Thrun, Adrien Treuille, J. Michael Vandeweghe, Lucianne Walkowicz, Jennifer Wood and Jonathan L. Zittrain. Photography: Peter Zeitlinger. Music: Colin Stevens. Edition: Marco Capalbo. Distributor: Out of Joint . Duration: 98 minutes. Suitable for all audiences. BAMA exclusively on Cine Arte (Diagonal Norte 1150).
Werner Herzog is not only a great director. He is essentially a curious person who also know how to ask and that, especially in the field of documentary, it is one of the fundamental conditions for the stories or topics you choose to prove exciting.
I do not think Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World ranks among the best works of nonfiction in his long career, but even if its structure is more conventional than on other occasions (recurs basically testimonies chamber experts in different areas technology or the analysis of their impact on social dynamics as well as victims of indiscriminate use of new devices and services), the film never ceases to be compelling and, in many passages, fascinating.
At startup Herzog reconstructs the early Internet and it goes to UCLA in California where, in a small room with a machine that now seems prehistoric, began on October 29, 1969 one of the most important revolutions of humanity . Those pioneers like Leonard Kleinrock and Bob Kahn offer valuable insight on how they dreamed that invention (even with errors) and what it has become today thanks to the creativity (and evil) of man.
Divided into 10 episodes and 30 interviews, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World - more apocalyptic than laudatory about technology - exposed work through the explanation of the astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz, proposes the concrete possibility that a solar flare Internet will break down and thereby put at serious risk of human survival increasingly dependent interconnectivity.
The film also shows the vulnerability of the network and people (interesting the testimony of the legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick), as well as the discoveries of innovators and visionaries (now converted into billionaires) as Elon Musk. The ability to send people to Mars and be easily connected with them ( Herzog volunteered to be part of a mission to the red planet with camera in hand) occupies another chapter. Moral changes such as rapid changes, profound generational differences and the risks of artificial intelligence are other issues that Herzog interviewed and analyzed.
Among the most interesting segments are those that reflect the victims of technology. For example, Internet addicts who have lost almost all contact with the real world (have stopped bathing, eating and have endangered their lives and their loved ones); or the inhabitants of the community of Green Bank, West Virginia, who have taken refuge there for being one of the few places without cellular antennas that affects those with special sensitivities to electromagnetic emissions. That village, surrounds the gigantic and basic telescope Robert C. Byrd, they may be "contaminated" by external signals and, therefore, has become (a bit like the characters in Safe Todd Haynes) in place favorite for those who do not want any technological presence. These and other major findings are gleened from small diverse stories from the lofty narrator who is the indefatigable Werner Herzog.
Source: Otros Cines
