#3 - VPRO Backlight: Archive of the Future
This is Film! 2024 #3: VPRO Backlight: Archive of the Future
For the third session of This is Film! we invite Bregtje van der Haak, Marije Meerman, Koos van de Merbel and William de Bruijn to discuss the VPRO Archive of the Future and the possibilities and downsides of using AI technology for audiovisual archives, followed by a screening of the documentary The Price of AI.
The Archive is also an exploration of how Artificial Intelligence can help to analyse, re-order and expose an audiovisual archive. By means of Automatic Speech Recognition, Text Analysis, Object Detection and Image Recognition, all Tegenlicht episodes have been converted into a dataset that enables users to search for specific episodes, quotes, and even individual video fragments. Themes like the future of economics, finance, education, and climate change can be explored over time, but also as a kaleidoscope of alternate perspectives.
Bregtje van der Haak will introduce the Archive of the Future project and William de Bruijn and Koos van de Merbel will give a live demonstration of the online archive, discussing the possibilities of using AI technology in audiovisual archives, after which Marije Meerman will shed light on the shadow side of AI and the system of exploitation that sustains it.
This session will include a screening of The Price of AI with introduction by director Marije Meerman. Afterwards, there will be a Q&A in collaboration with the Master students of the This is Film! class at the University of Amsterdam.
Programme
The Price of AI (Marije Meerman, NL 2023, 51‘)
This episode of VPRO documentary series Tegenlicht explores the shadow side of the Artificial Intelligence industry. Behind the recent success of AI lies a system of exploitation and extraction on an industrial scale with significant consequences for the Earth and humanity.
Guest: Bregtje van der Haak
Bregtje van der Haak is a documentary filmmaker and journalist en director of Eye Film Museum. Her documentaries, interactives, and installations, have been shown in exhibitions, and in festivals around the world and include Lagos Wide & Close (2004), Digital Amnesia (2014), and Perfect Me (2021). As a creative project director, Van der Haak developed collaborative transmedia projects with visual artists, filmmakers, academic researchers, and designers, including Urban Century (2009), Aftermath Project (2010), and White Spots (2016). Van der Haak has been a curator for Manifesta XII in Palermo, and a visiting professor at the School of Creative Media, City University Hong Kong, and at the Anneberg School at USC in Los Angeles.
Guest: Marije Meerman
Marije Meerman is a documentary filmmaker and commissioning editor for the public broadcast organisation VPRO. She has directed more than thirty documentaries of which many have been awarded. Most of her films are personal stories set against a backdrop of a rapidly changing world. They deal with the impact of globalisation, finance and big tech, and explore how the needs and longings of individuals collide with systems of ideology, economy and religion.
Guest: Koos van de Merbel
Koos van de Merbel is producer at VPRO. He has worked for Tegenlicht, In Europa, De Wilde Ruimte, and other VPRO and Human (documentary) series. He is currently working for the department ‘travel series’, responsible for series such as Onze man bij de Taliban, Langs de Nieuwe Zijderoute, and Dr. Ruben.
Guest: William de Bruijn
William de Bruijn is a senior researcher and occasional programme maker at VPRO. He has worked on VPRO television series such as Firma Onrust, TV-Nomaden, Laat op de avond na een korte wandeling, De Nieuwe Wereld (DNW), R*A*M, and Tegenlicht.
This is part of
Details
Production year
2024
Length
120 min.
Event language
English
Country
NL
Part of
This is Film! 2024
This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice is an annual public lecture series devoted to notable projects in the fields of film restoration and film heritage, with international guest speakers and film screenings.
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