Earlier this year during a science event at the MIT Elon Musk said that “with artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon.” Coming from anyone else, such fear mongering would’ve been dismissed as just another tech guru being cute. But Musk—a visionary who co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors, and who now runs SpaceX—has street cred.
WE ARE A LIFE FORM from natalia iyudin on Vimeo.
Musk’s prescient proclamation inspired a couple—in life and in cinema—to ponder: how does the ceaseless advent of technology shape and guide our lives and are we truly going to innovate ourselves extinct? Having worked on two feature films framed by visions of haywire environment of the future, Natalia and Dmitry decided to write a short movie about a post-singularity world ruled by rogue AI.
The story is set in 2089 when Earth is a hostile place for humans who by then are an out-of-date concept. The only way to survive is to integrate into AI constructs at The Garden and live pain-free forever. Yet Luc—a rebellious ballerina—would rather die than conform. But when she meets an odd robot Azul, the idea of integrating into a better version of herself suddenly sounds tempting.
What’s unique about the story is that it’s a hybrid of dark humor, thriller, and sleek technology, told from a female perspective with a fierce teenage ballerina as a protagonist. And yet, the film has a universal appeal with its themes of defiance against a totalitarian regime and a life-affirming right to artistic expression, free of dogmas and censorship.
The Garden is collaboration between Natalia and writer Dmitry Iyudin (The Russian Heart), award-winning director Bartek Kulas (Millhaven), DP Kamil Plocki (Fourth Dimension), and producers Marta Harasymowicz (Go East Films), Heather Hollingsworth, Zoe Couacaud, and Hypatia Porter, as well as a Production Designer Javiera Varas (Dallas Buyers Club, The Dawn of The Planet of the Apes). The film is scheduled to start production in early March.
To support the project visit Kickstarter HERE
Website: www.thegarden-film.com
