This section presents programmes on topics that our curators are passionate about or that are simply fun.
From the many forms of disco to all-too-topical, AI-powered future scenarios, from historical films that have lost none of their relevance to a trilogy by last year’s winner of the Promotional Award, Samuel Suffren: our special programmes hold many discoveries.
Truth or DataArtificial intelligence is no longer a speculative vision of the future but part of our everyday lives. What was science fiction yesterday is now a productive force, entertainment medium, and surveillance tool. Artificial intelligence transcribes, recommends, generates, and filters. It is everywhere yet rarely visible.
This programme serves as a cinematic intervention into a present where «intelligence» is no longer a uniquely human attribute but a technological promise: efficient, purpose-optimized, teachable, and able to simulate emotions while also maximizing profits. But what does «intelligence» mean in this context? And who determines what we use it for? How should we conceive of this artificial intelligence, which promises to become ever more efficient, optimized, teachable, and profitable in a hypercapitalist system? Should we see it as a success or as the ultimate surrender to machines and the meritocracy?
The films in this programme show both how technologies are created and what they are based on: global exploitation, unequal division of labour, and established power structures. At the same time, they imagine spaces where machines can dream, be self-aware, and become creative. Between mining and avatars, chatbots and art markets, these shorts pose questions without offering simple answers: Can machines really feel emotions, or do they skilfully manipulate us to empathize with them? Can creativity and relationships be programmed? And what does it mean for us if we increasingly leave thinking and feeling to systems?
The programme does not claim to provide answers; instead, it aims to set our relationship to the technological world in motion. Truth or Data is not a blueprint for the future. It is a look at the present that asks us to question established views and truths: with and without artificial intelligence.
Curated by John Canciani & Lea Heuer
