Stare Into the Lights My Pretties
Look around. People seem to be forever glued to their electronic devices. Heads down, eyes staring, our society has been hijacked by these dominant technologies. In less than a lifetime, we’ve gone from computers the size of ordinary buildings to incredibly powerful mobile devices in the palm of our hands. We didn’t even stop to catch our breath. That’s exactly what Stare Into the Lights My Pretties aims to do. This riveting and ambitious feature-length documentary charts the progress of our computerized world and examines its impact on present and future generations.
We are completely immersed in screen culture. On any given day, the average person spends more time staring at screens than sleeping. This has dramatically changed the way we interact with other people, conduct personal and business affairs, and experience the world. These stimuli are all about surface sensations, distractions, and instant gratification. What they often fail to provide is context, metaphor or meaning. They changed the way we learn, and they taught courses that didn’t encourage critical thinking or require longer attention spans.
In the film’s view, screen culture also provides the ideal narcotic for corporate and government interests to keep us in check. Your Google searches provide these structures with unprecedented insight into your thoughts, aspirations, political leanings, and other defining characteristics. Everyone from advertisers to politicians use this data to change our behavior and make us their business. Online surveillance poses a significant threat to our fundamental right to privacy. However, many users already view this intrusion as a necessary evil. Once we willingly relinquish our rights and immerse our lives entirely in the fulfillment of our machine fantasies, we lose our capacity for empathy and autonomy.
On a technical level, Stare Into the Lights My Pretties is top-notch; its atmospheric cinematic score and imaginative editing style lend the film its captivating charm. The filmmakers ask very relevant and profound moral and ethical questions. What kind of world do we want to live in, and do we have the will to change it?
Directed by: Jordan Brown
