Documentary 'Lo And Behold: Reveries Of A Connected World' Humanist Look At Our Digital Existence
AUG 19, 2016 @ 03:08 PM
Emma Sandler, FORBES STAFF
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, opens with a scene of a bland and empty corridor where Leonard Kleinrock, “Internet Pioneer, UCLA” leads Herzog and the viewer to a small room, all the while Herzog narrates how, “The corridors here look repulsive, and yet this one leads to some sort of a shrine,” he says.
The room in question is located in UCLA’s main engineering building. That room is home the first machine ever to send an electronic message via what would become the internet. (The message—“LO,” an interrupted transmission of the “LOGIN” prompt—is where the film title comes from.) Yes, in keeping with Herzog’s ambitious documentary themes, this one is entirely on the internet.
It might seem like a lofty topic that finally might put Herzog’s directorial visions asunder, but it actually keeps in line with the rich tradition of Herzog’s style. After all, this is a German who once spent almost two years filming in the Amazon jungle trying to tow a steamship over a mountain which became Fitzcarraldo, released in 1982. He has also ventured into Antarctica, Alaska and more than once into the jungles in search of reverence and revelation.
Lo and Behold, released Aug. 19, is not so much a sweeping view of the internet as it is 10 serialized chapters of how our humanity interacts, retracts and abuses “one of the greatest revolutions,” as Herzog says. Some of these chapters include appearances by Arizona State cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, Carnegie Mellon brain researcher Marcel Just, Stanford roboticist Sabastian Thrun and everyone’s favorite Silicon Valley poster boy, Elon Musk. Topics include a colony of people who claim to suffer from sensitivity to wireless radiation signals and who live off the grid, people recovering from internet addiction, questioning scientists about whether the internet will dream of itself or fall in love, how video-gamers helped with mapping and solving molecule puzzles that baffled scientists for years, as well as family who received revolting taunts and graphic photos from internet trolls after their daughter was decapitated in a car accident.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmasandler/2016/08/19/documentary-lo-and-behold-reveries-of-a-connected-world/#25fa014b4ac5
= new reply since forum marked as read
