One documentary that’s getting a decent amount of buzz out of Sundance this year is director Werner Herzog‘s latest, Lo And Behold: The Reveries of the Connected World, which now has a trailer. Accompanied by the stoic and always welcome narration from Herzog himself, the film takes a look at the history behind the current age of information and what the future holds as technology makes rapid advancements.
The project is developed in partnership with Netscout, a network management firm, so hopefully it won’t feel too much like a giant advertisement, but I can’t see a director like Herzog going for something like that. Lo And Behold held its premiere in Park City last night and will next screen tomorrow night (Monday, January 25th) at 9PM.
Here’s the synopsis from Sundance:
Society depends on the Internet for nearly everything but rarely do we step back and recognize its endless intricacies and unsettling omnipotence. From the brilliant mind of Werner Herzog comes his newest vehicle for exploration, a playful yet chilling examination of our rapidly interconnecting online lives.
Herzog documents a treasure trove of interviews of strange and beguiling individuals—ranging from Internet pioneers to victims of wireless radiation, whose anecdotes and reflections weave together a complex portrait of our brave new world. Herzog describes the Internet as “one of the biggest revolutions we as humans are experiencing,” and yet he tempers this enthusiasm with horror stories from victims of online harassment and Internet addiction.
For all of its detailed analysis, this documentary also wrestles with profound and intangible questions regarding the Internet’s future. Will it dream, as humans do, of its own existence? Can it discover the fundamentals of morality, or perhaps one day understand the meaning of love? Or will it soon cause us—if it hasn’t already—more harm than good?
