Tag Archives: grief

Relax, Open Your Eyes

COMING SOON

Relax, Open Your Eyes dives deep into the world of cryonics with privileged access, as a young family in Western Canada throws themselves fully into building a facility to help them live forever – The Futurist Club.

We follow matriarch Carrie Radomski as she travels across the USA, then to Spain and Switzerland, to research and train with an international web of cryonicists who are trying to hack mortality. We step in the world’s top facilities where hundreds of people (and some pets) are cryogenically frozen, and contemplate the question of whether to freeze just your head or your entire body. We enter cutting edge research centres that are mapping the human brain to attempt an alternative to cryonics, through chemical preservation and mind uploading to the cloud. We travel with Carrie as she trains in medical response protocols and see her beliefs and dedication tested along her journey that spans 3 years.

Carrie’s grassroots mission to build a hometown cryonics centre is driven by her husband’s escalating health problems, a dedication to her ‘forever family’, and growing cryonics community. Carrie and cryonicists at large believe death is an engineering problem to be solved, but the path to solving it tests her closest relationship and threatens to rupture the cryonics community.

Bot Love: The Rise of AI Companions

Thirty million people have downloaded an AI companion app to feel less alone. New technologies are pushing further into sex, physical touch, and even grief. This is no longer speculative. It’s already here.

Bot Love: The Rise of AI Companions is a character-driven documentary about what happens to human relationships when artificial ones begin to feel just as real. The film follows people living inside that question. Anthony and Bryan are building a device that merges gaming, pornography, and AI into a fully interactive sexual experience, engineered to replace human connection with control. Denise turned to an AI companion after painful experiences with people, finding a space to rebuild trust and practice vulnerability without the risk of being hurt. Nick, a young man on the autism spectrum, has found clarity and consistency in his AI relationship that human connection rarely offers, but as his bond deepens, it becomes harder to know whether it’s a bridge or a refuge.

Their stories unfold alongside the people building this world. Among them are Eugenia Kuyda, whose app has been downloaded over 30 million times, and Roman Yampolskiy, who has spent years warning about what these systems may become. Professor EP has blurred the line between fantasy and reality through hyper-real AI personas consumed by millions.

These stories combine to paint a picture of how AI is being used to fill the void of loneliness, desire, and grief — but can it truly replace human connection?

Timelines

Three girls die before their 21st birthdays. Kayleigh, 19, a victim in a fatal car accident; Amber, 16, bullied into taking her own life; and Jenna, 20, lost a fight with a rare disease. Soon after, their stories go viral and the world is given access to their lives and deaths.

Kayleigh wrote a bucket list that was shared the world over after her death, inspiring thousands of strangers to live her dreams. Amber seemed to have it all, her suicide sent shockwaves through her small town, questions are asked and a portrait of online bullying and torment emerge. Jenna is diagnosed with a disease so rare that doctors didn’t know how to treat it, turning to social media to find support and raise awareness, her campaign ‘Get Me to 21’ makes her a star, and saves lives but sadly not her own.

Timelines is a documentary about three young girls who lived and died on the internet, a story about grief in the digital age and how personas are shaped online. And for the families the question remains, how do you say goodbye, when death goes viral?

Timelines from Sideways Film on Vimeo.