#3 - VPRO Backlight: Archive of the Future

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.