[Air-l] more net films

David M. Silver dsilver at u.washington.edu
Tue Oct 23 13:34:29 PDT 2001


Folks, 

In another, non-air thread I'm in with my friend and colleague Phil Thurtle, we've been discussing teaching materials and films in particular.  With Phil's permission, I'm forwarding a recent post of his.  Some of them have been mentioned, others not.  Enjoy!

david silver

****

From: Phillip Thurtle <thurtle at u.washington.edu>

FIRST RUN FILMS

"Lain: serial experiments" This is a Japanese anime television series
about a young girl who begins to use the Internet and starts questioning
her identity.  Much more compelling than other films of this type(Matrix,
etc.) and gets the students to begin thinking in international and
gendered terms regarding this issue.

Chris Marker's _La Jetee_ is a great meditation on time in an extensively
surveilled society.  This is the film that Terry Gilliam based _12
Monkeys_ on.

"Colussus: The Forbin Project".  This film wonderfully captures how fears of nuclear invasion during the cold war is transferred to the technology that we use to stop the invasions.  

"Tron"?  

"The Andromeda Strain".  This film is especially pertinent today with the fears of bioterrorism.

The movie "Momento" is also important for thinking about identity and
memory in a highly mediated society.

David Cronnenberg's "Existenz" has some provocative scenes regarding
human/user interface. 

DOCUMENTARIES

"Ducktators" is a great documentary on the use of cartoons during world
war II.

"The Last Angel of History" is a very cool film that explores the
relationship of PanAfrican identity, new technology, and outer space
themes through the exploration of the works of Octavia Butler, Samuel
Delaney, George Clinton, and Sun Ra.

"Death by Design" is a film that looks at technology and art and
scientific representations.

"Japan Dreaming"  one of the more informed takes on the development of
Japan's "synthetic" pleasures.

"Optimum" is a historical film that looks at themes of the information
society in historical context.  It covers, Jeremy Bentham, Charles
Babbage, and Francis Galton.  A scholarly as well as a gorgeously produced
film.

"A Mobile World" investigates telecommunications development from the
perspective of citizens from Helsinki to the Ivory Coast.  It especially
concentrates on the use of a "global" discourse as a means for marketing
electronic devices.

I hope this helps-
Phillip





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