Tag Archives: USA

The Face of Anonymous

In the late Spring 2020—in the midst of coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and U.S. presidential nomination coverage—mainstream media outlets reported that the anarchic “hacktivist” network Anonymous was back after several years of relative quiet.  “We will be exposing your many crimes to the world,” a masked messenger told the Minneapolis police department in a clip that went viral, captivating millions of young viewers. “We are legion. Expect us.”

This pivotal moment is the perfect time to unveil The Face of Anonymous, a verité journey into the world of Commander X, one of the most iconic, divisive, and outspoken figures in the history of the international online movement. Now living in exile in Mexico, Commander X is ready to tell his own remarkable story and to reveal not just the How but the Why of Anon’s modus operandi.

Christopher Mark Doyon, aka Commander X, personifies the trajectory of American activism “from the streets, to the Internet, and then back to the streets,” says journalist and author David Kushner, one of several observers, compadres, and detractors who provide the context—and, sometimes, reality check—in which Commander X’s rough and righteous odyssey unfolds.

We are introduced to Commander X by Toronto novelist Ian Thornton who confesses that, at first, he couldn’t believe that the thin, craggy, talkative panhandler he’d befriended was a cyber warlord who’d been on the run from the FBI for six years. 

We soon learn Doyon is an old-school revolutionary. As a computer-smitten teeager, he fled a difficult childhood in rural Maine, moving Zelig-like through various activist hotspots and taking up hacking long before most of us had heard the term. He considers himself a freedom-fighter who’s helped shape the 21st century.

When PayPal, Mastercard, and VISA blocked people from using their services to support Wikileaks, Commander X led the charge to nuke their websites, costing millions and waking the FBI up to the power of Anonymous. When the Egyptian government cut off the Internet during the Arab Spring, Commander X was one of the lead hackers to turn it back on.

More recently, as Homeland investigates Russian election hacking, Commander X says he knows that the Russian hackers are the real deal—he’s seen them lurking in the digital world through which he continues to stride.

“I’ll see you all later tonight on Anonymous Bites Back,” says Doyon, closing his livestream from a town square in Mexico. “Look for that on Twitter. I’ll be on, expect me.”

Premiered at Hot Docs 2021

Vinyl Nation

Vinyl Nation is the comprehensive documentary about vinyl – past and present – taking in the fandom, the production, its sound, and its history including its road-bumps, and a new generation of fans that smash the stereotype of it being the preserve of older white males.

The vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector: younger, both male and female, multicultural. This same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats.

Vinyl Nation digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?

¨ An engaging journey.. Visually stunning¨
The Chicago Reader

¨ Entertaining and informative.. Vinyl Nation transcends its niche subject matter¨
Decider

 

Mind Forward

The symbiosis of the brain / mind and artificial intelligence will give rise to a new humanity, a kind of ´super-humanity´.

Brain-machine communication will allow that the cognitive capabilities of human beings will be enhanced, giving rise to the first augmented humans. Connected brains will lead to powerful synthetic telepathy technologies making it possible to not only to read other person’s thoughts, but also manipulate them. But where what are the potential benefits and pitfalls of these new technologies?

Neuro – technologies are about to cause a radical social shift that will change our understanding of the inner self and our very conception of reality. Neuro – rights will be foremost, necessitating regulations that guarantee the privacy of our conscious or even subconscious thoughts.

Mind Forward explores the frontiers of this brave new world.

Non Western

We join Thaddeus and Nanci, a Native / Non Native Montanan couple, in the lead up to their wedding, as they face their biggest challenge yet. Thaddeus wants Nanci to convert to his Cheyenne way of life even if it forces Nanci into a subordinate role.

Both Nanci and Thaddeus were adopted as teenagers by families with different ethnicities: Thaddeus by a white Christian family, and Nanci by the Lakota tribe. It’s no coincidence they have sought shared experience and understanding in one another.

Thaddeus believes in returning to his Cheyenne culture and through running sweats he finds peace from the PTSD he suffers. Nanci wants to please him, to find a balance between life in the modern world and her Native traditions even if that means denying her independence.

Under the strain of trying to co-habit and survive together, we see the cracks in their values showing through. Cracks which reveal not just the trauma they suffered growing up, but the chain of oppression endemic in Montana.

Forging the Future (series)

Filmed across North America, Europe, and Australia, and mastered in 4K, this six-part series focuses on the most exciting disciplines in popular science today.

Each episode features a deep dive into: Artificial Intelligence, Achieving Immortality, Living Off the Earth, Genetic Engineering, Cyborg Technology, and creating a Disease-Free World with the Human Microbiome.

By showing how the most cutting-edge technologies work across these fields, the series reveals the real-world impact they will have, and the hopeful futures they will create—and which this series dramatically reveals—for humanity and the planet.

Through immersive, ‘you are there’ filmmaking, each episode presents the most esteemed technologists and scientists in action at the world’s most advanced facilities—including those at elite institutions like Harvard University, MIT, Columbia University.

To overcome some of our greatest challenges, they are using gene-editing technologies to fight life-threatening genetic disorders, using Artificial Intelligence to develop robotic consciousness, creating outside-the-box treatments that can reverse ageing, or even using Computer-Assisted Telepathy that gives a person control of another person’s body!

Forging the Future offers unique, first person perspectives from some of the most respected scientists today, as they help to create a better future for everyone.

Episode 1 Cyborg Revolution won the 2021 Gold Award at the New York Festivals TV and Film for Best Science and Technology episode, and Episodes 4 and 5 (Life off Earth and Disease Free World) both won Finalist Awards. Details here, here and here.

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Episode 1 – Cyborg Revolution

We’ve all seen Cyborgs in Hollywood blockbusters. But it turns out these fictional beings aren’t so far-fetched. In fact, this episode features a true-to-life cyborg, who at four months of age, was the youngest American to be outfitted with a myoelectric hand. And at one ground-breaking engineering facility, engineers are developing biotechnologies that can even further enhance high-tech like this by giving mechanical prosthetics something incredible: the physical sensation of touch!

Other engineering firms are gearing up powerful exoskeletons that both rehabilitate and enhance the power of the human body… improving the lives of those with paralysis and transforming the work force.

But the real pivot is getting machines inside the body. An out-of-the-box ‘transhumanist’ featured in the episode installs a chip inside a person’s hand. It works as a key that unlocks doors, literally and figuratively.

However, brain-machine integration poses the biggest challenges, and the biggest rewards. Cutting-edge neuroscientists and technologists reveal how computer chips can directly interface with the human brain in ways that not only rehabilitate, but which can also ‘read thoughts’ in real-time.

Remarkably, a breakthrough technology called ‘Computer Assisted Telepathy’ is achieving the impossible. Through a test subject’s mind only, she’s able to control another person’s body. Technologies like these will pave the way toward the Cyborg Revolution.

  

 

Episode 2 – Hyper Intelligence

Everyone has heard about Artificial Intelligence (or AI), but very few people know what it is or how it actually works. This episode brings this otherwise abstract topic to life by visiting the most cutting-edge engineering firms where innovative technologists are using AI to transform machines into thinking robots.

Leading institutions are preparing robot rovers and flying drones to navigate through unmapped territories, in order to save lives in bold Search and Rescue missions. By ‘mapping as they go’, these thinking machines generate their own intelligence—allowing them to self-navigate without human input. Additionally, some technologists are coordinating swarms of drones to operate and collaborate together—all with the explicit ambition of improving the efficiency of farming and increasing food production.

Though the news media often reports on how machines could cause unemployment, that’s not what AI inventors in this program are saying. In fact, their AI-driven robots are using machine-learning to work better with humans. Through observation, AI robots are learning to anticipate the actions of human co-workers, keeping people safer in the workplace – and making it more productive.

Some scientists in this show are even developing AI robots that are achieving the beginnings of robotic consciousness. By comprehending their own self-image, they are able to learn about their environment, make decisions, and navigate the space around them – just as  human babies do. Other engineers are taking this technology even further to develop real-world Androids – that is, robots that look, feel, and act like people.

Becoming consultants, advisors, and even friends, these Androids will ultimately help individuals adjust to realities of the human condition.

 

Episode 3 – Human Immortality

If you thought Human Immortality was just a concept in science fiction, this episode reveals how it will become science fact. For some scientists featured in this program, achieving Immortality is not a question of ‘If’. The real question is ‘When?’.

One scientist shows how she is making lab-grown organs called ‘ghost hearts’ that not only grow quickly, but that can be accepted in any host’s body without rejection—ending the agony for those waiting for organ transplants. Another biologist is looking at Immortality at the microbiological level. In his lab, he’s identified the ‘longevity gene’ (called SIR2) that can slow the ageing process, and which holds the key that will unlock our ability to better control the rate at which we age. One gerontologist is unearthing the immortal secrets of lobsters, who never stop growing and naturally live up to the astonishing age of 122 years. Inspired by how their bodies regulate cellular division, he’s developing cutting-edge medications that will boost human longevity.

Incredibly, one pioneer is creating a unique medical cocktail that can even reverse ageing. Medical techniques like these could pave the way to Human Immortality.

  

 

Episode 4 – Life Off Earth

If you thought The Space Race peaked with the Apollo missions, wait until permanent research bases on the Moon and Mars start cropping up.

The New Space Race to get humans to Mars is heating up, and this episode presents the visionaries who are making this future possible. Once exclusively financed by governments, private companies are now developing the means of living in outer space.

On the cutting edge of this Copernican Revolution is the Dream Chaser—a new, high-flying space shuttle that will ferry researchers to inflatable research habitats in outer space. But creating permanent habitats in the toxic environments on the Moon and Mars is a serious undertaking. Scientists and engineers take these threats to human life very seriously. One engineer is creating advanced, reusable spacesuits that makes mobility and dexterity less bulky, and more feasible in gravity-free environments.

Other engineers featured in the episode are helping in these efforts by developing high-tech drills and pressurization chambers that allow for the excavation of the most crucial resource for the survival of humanity: Liquid Water.

These are just a few parts of the complex efforts needed to establish habitats on alien planets.

One firm is developing habitats that are 3D printed with Martian soil, and will be pre-built before astronauts arrive. But one of the boldest endeavours lies in creating a living, breathing ecosystem that, through plant growth, generates oxygen and food for the first permanent settlers on the Moon and Mars.

An ambitious research project—30 years in the making—is providing the ‘ground-truth’ of how to create an Earth-like Biosphere in outer space… providing a road map for how humanity will survive and even thrive in the life-threatening conditions of other planets.

 

Episode 5 – Disease-Free World: The Microbiome

To create a disease-free world, scientists are pushing the envelope in every conceivable corner. This episode features the most cutting-edge scientists out there—including Nobel-prize winners—who are harnessing the power of what’s called “The Microbiome.”

The Microbiome is the full array of the trillions of microorganisms that live in or on the human body, which help it function. By understanding the Microbiome as a kind of ecosystem, scientists are using innovative techniques to discern the microbes’ various functions in the body as a whole.

Incredibly, through revealing the function of one particular micro-organism, one scientist has been able to cure Stomach Cancer. But other scientists armed with this knowledge are attempting the unthinkable: namely, to increase the presence of microbes across the body by intentionally infecting people with more infectious agents. The reason? Increasing microbial diversity in the body boosts its immunity, and helps people fight disease from the inside out.

Radical methods like these are leading to breakthrough remedies, from the erasure of life-threatening infections like C. Difficile, to ending Asthma and Obesity. Innovative research like this will inform the biotechnologies of the future, and in turn create a disease-free world.

 

Episode 6 – The Rise of Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering extends far beyond the controversial news headlines that obsess over ‘designer babies’. In the science community, gene-editing tools like CRISPR and PRIME editing will do nothing less than save the planet.

Methods like this allow scientists to alter and ‘re-program’ the genetics of living organisms.

This episode shows scientists at large using gene-editing technologies to revolutionize the food supply chain, bolstering food crops to prevent famines, and even speed up reforestation efforts that will reverse global warming. Genetic Engineering in farm animals is helping scientists to ‘select’ desirable traits, like physical features and gender. Incredibly, one scientist is using gene-editing technologies to resurrect the DNA of extinct species, like the Wooly Mammoth!

Despite some public concern, gene-editing is definitely a cause for hope in the fight against genetic disorders in humans. It’s already reversing a type of congenital blindness in children. And with the hyper-precision afforded by PRIME editing being prepared for clinical trials, a much more hopeful world will be revealed for families in the future.

Martha: A Picture Story

Martha Cooper is an unexpected icon of the street art movement – a tiny, grey-haired figure running alongside crews of masked graffiti artists.

In the 1970’s, as the boroughs of New York City burned, she worked as a photographer for the New York Post, seeking images of creativity and play where others saw crime and poverty. As a result, she captured some of the first images of New York graffiti, at a time when the city had declared war on this new culture. Martha and her co-author Henry Chalfant compiled these images into the book Subway Art. However, the commercial failure of the book forced Martha to leave graffiti behind, moving on to document many other hidden cultures of New York.

20 years later Martha discovers she has become a legend of the graffiti world – a culture that has now exploded into a global movement. Subway Art became one of the most sold – and stolen – art books of all time, photocopied and shared by graffiti artists for decades.

At 75 years of age, Martha finds herself navigating a culture vastly changed.The small community born from struggle and adversity, has grown into a commercial industry fuelled by the rise of social media. Now every new piece of street art is immediately uploaded, and crowds line up for selfies in front of popular works. Martha struggles to find her place in this new world, driven by a passion for capturing the creativity that helps people rise above their environment.

Ten Dollar Death Trip: Inside The Fentanyl Crisis

With the world fighting a deadly pandemic, another heartbreaking public health crisis is raging in North America.  A new synthetic drug is killing more than gun crime, homicide and car accidents combined.

100 times stronger than heroin, the deadly opioid fentanyl is cheap, potent and small enough to send in the post. These market forces have seen it replacing the heroin supply, spreading unprecedented death, destruction and misery. And, like all epidemics, it is spreading fast.

The death toll has disproportionately affected the homeless and marginalised. And now, due to its strength and low cost, the drug is also starting to appear in party drugs, such as cocaine and cannabis – with fatal results.

We travel to Vancouver, the epicentre of the fentanyl epidemic to meet with health care workers, activists, fentanyl dealers and people who use it.

We learn of radical initiatives to fight back against a toxic drug supply and ask what the world should expect if the fentanyl epidemic spreads outside of North America.

The Internet of Everything

The Internet is invading all aspects of your life. No longer confined to your computer or your phone, the Internet is now in garbage cans, refrigerators, and the infrastructure of our cities. The future will either be a surveillance nightmare or an eco-utopia, the outcome determined by startups in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen.

The Internet of Everything captures our present moment, when both futures still seem possible. 

Brett Gaylor – a reformed techno-utopian who works in the tech industry – will be your guide.

His award winning documentaries Rip! A Remix Manifesto and Do Not Track have mapped the public’s relationship with the Internet; first fascination and obsession, then growing discomfort around the abuse of our private information, and now a sense of confusion and dread.  If the pace of change and lack of agency is confusing for a techie like Brett, everyone else is probably feeling bewildered, too.

But now, with the connecting of the physical world into the “Internet of Things”, the stakes have been raised – it’s no longer just the abstractions of cyberspace that are spinning out of control, but instead our homes, our bodies and our cities that are being transformed.

It’s a fast, funny and enlightening take on the bewildering change the Internet has wrought. The Internet of Everything embraces the “tech-lash” while reflecting on the big picture of a world where we are all connected.

 

A five webisode miniseries is also available comprising new, complementary stories

 

Episode 1 – Screen time

It’s easy to point our finger at kids for too much screen time — we’ve all laughed at memes of children on their phones at the museum, in the park, or on a camping trip… but as adults, are we any better?

At his home in Victoria, B.C., reformed techno-utopian Brett Gaylor, like most parents, is in a constant battle between his kids and screens. But what happens when the internet moves beyond the screen and into the world around us? With innumerable connected objects and spaces, depending on how you see it, we’re either living in a futuristic utopia or a nightmarish surveillance state. Every connected product comes with a trade-off — from the carbon footprint of smart assistants, to the complicated health insurance implications of wearables, or safety concerns around self-driving cars.

 

Episode 2 – Alexa, Save the Planet

Ever wondered how much energy is needed for Alexa to play that 90s dance hits playlist you love so much? More than you think.

There are already 66 million smart assistants in operation in the United States alone, and the number is growing daily. But what are we trading for the convenience of turning the lights on with our voice? Director Brett Gaylor approaches the question from a child’s point of view with his daughter Layla as they grapple to understand the enormous amount of energy and processing power involved in the machine learning powering Alexa. In parallel, Amazon’s corporate carbon footprint continues to grow, between the massive amount of non-renewable energy used to power their web services, or the ongoing pollution from transport emissions. In 2018, staff protests prompt shareholders to confront management, demanding a plan for climate change and a reduction of the company’s dependence on fossil fuels.

 

Episode 3 – In Good Hands

It’s easy to get sucked into the cute graphics of your health monitoring app, but the data captured by your FitBit or smart watch is being used for much more than simply encouraging you to up your step count.

Director Brett Gaylor travels to the outskirts of Paris where four young roommates try out fitness trackers for the first time, allowing him to monitor their health data. He finds out much more about their lives than they were expecting — what time they go to bed, when they go to the convenience store for a late night snack, and who’s sleeping with whom. This is creepy enough in and of itself, but it gets worse when the data falls into the hands of third parties. Health Insurance companies and corporate “wellness” programs are using health data obtained from fitness trackers to make decisions about how much your health insurance should cost, or whether or not they will insure you at all.

 

Episode 4 – Take the Wheel

The fantasy of stepping into a self-driving car and kicking back to read, nap or work until you arrive at your destination has universal appeal. But are the cars, or the cities in which we plan to let them loose, up to the task?

Director Brett Gaylor travels to northern France where the company TEQMO is testing self-driving cars in common accident scenarios, such as getting cut-off at an intersection. Let’s just say, they still have some testing to do. On the infrastructure front, hacker Cesar Cerato is on a mission to expose weaknesses in smart city traffic systems. Steps from the White House in Washington, he is surprised to discover that Washington’s traffic sensors aren’t encrypted. With pedestrians and drivers’ lives at risk, algorithmic driving where we can trust the data to make the right decision seems to be a long way off.

 

Episode 5 – See Something, Say Something

The Ring doorbell camera is positioned as a great way to monitor who or what’s at the door, whether you’re home or not. But preying on consumers’ fears of their Amazon packages getting stolen, or worse, is having far-reaching impacts on communities and policing practices around the world.

Director Brett Gaylor meets community activists in Skid Row, Los Angeles, where law enforcement has partnered with Amazon’s Ring, with some unintended consequences. On a map obtained from the police, the activists notice that “hot spots,” where police predict crimes will occur based on users’ “reports of suspicision,” are often found not in the heart of Skid Row, but at the outskirts, where gentrifying communities are clashing with their less fortunate, often non-white neighbours. By embracing these technologies, are the police protecting everyone, or just the gentrified?

 

 

Inside Saudi Arabia (series)

Saudi Arabia is well known across the world for its wealth, strict faith and oppression, but while Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has decreed that it wants to reform, the world is startled by the murder of journalist Khashoggi and other human rights violations.

We follow the developments from the inside, through the eyes of the inhabitants themselves. Are they just empty promises or is Saudi Arabia actually able to change?

 

Episode 1: In Search for Freedom 

We travel across Saudi Arabia and follow the reforms from within for a year. The country wants to diversify its economy by opening its borders to tourism.

In Jeddah, many young people hope for change, demanding greater equality between men and women, but the conservative opposition is enormous. One wrong word and they can be arrested. How far do they go in the fight for freedom?

 

Episode 2: Under the Control of the Royal Family

In the second episode, we enter the Saudi Arabian elite, where it becomes clear that the killing of Khashoggi does not impact their loyalty towards the royal family.

We are invited to Diriyah where religion and the House of Saud coincide, leading us to the mosque of Wahab, which is said to be a birthplace of extremist ideas.

 

Episode 3: The Power of the Holy Cities 

The two holy cities of Mecca and Medina give Saudi Arabia enormous religious power.

We follow the trail of the pilgrims, from the port of Jeddah to the Holy Kaäba. There is a call for a more moderate Islam, but do religious leaders really support this?

 

Episode 4: Travelling to Reality 

After the murder of Khashoggi, the question is what will happen with the reforms. Is the support for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman crumbling?

We travel to the rarely covered conservative South, on the border with Yemen, where the population’s resistance to change is the fiercest.

Freedom is a Big Word: After Guantanamo

Guantánamo Bay, and then what? After 13 years, a 38-year-old Palestinian named Muhammad is released from the notorious detention camp, where he was starved, tortured and humiliated. He gets the chance to start a new life in Uruguay, where he’ll get a home and welfare money. He has two years, then he’ll be on his own.

We follow Muhammad, a calm and very devout man, as he goes about his daily life, starting with his arrival in his new homeland and continuing until the end of the two years. He studies Spanish, learns to drive, prays, takes courses, calls his mother, and together with his Uruguayan wife looks for clothes for the baby they’re expecting. He’s resigned as he grapples with the local bureaucracy, but his eyes speak volumes.

At well-timed moments, we hear him talking in voice-over about his traumatic experiences in Guantánamo. Most of all, we see him looking for work, but who will take him on?

Freedom Is a Big Word shows how goodwill can descend into a sense of impotence in this confrontation with reality.

Eminent Monsters

Eminent Monsters traces the roots of western governments love affair with torture.

In  1950s Montreal Scottish born psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron experimented on his patients, using sensory deprivation, forced comas and LSD injections. Covertly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA, his techniques have been used in Northern Ireland, Guantánamo and 27 countries around the world.

Including extraordinary first hand testimony from Guantanamo survivors, the Hooded Men from Northern Ireland and senior American psychologists and military personnel, Eminent Monsters shows how the collusion of doctors to aid and abet torture began in the 1950s and continues to this day.

United We Fan

For most viewers, it’s simply a disappointment when their favourite television series is cancelled. But the fans of some series take the loss a lot harder. And they fight back.

United We Fan explores the inspiring true stories behind these unique save-our-show fan crusades – from the letter writing of yesterday to the social media and crowdfunding campaigns of today. Following the stories of fans, stars, creators and more, the film goes far beyond the headlines to give you deeper insights into fandom, identity and community.