So Unreal

dir. Amanda Kramer, 98 minutes

Amanda Kramer’s SO UNREAL is a cinephile’s visual essay examining a canon of films that dared dream beyond the threshold of the real. Across a 30-year span – 1981 to 2001 – depictions of ‘future shock’ technologies such as artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and virtual reality grew in both frequency and complexity. Cinema in these years provided an outlet for humanity’s intertwined anxieties, fears, and fantasies about the brave new frontiers looming ahead.

Narrated by Blondie icon Debbie Harry, SO UNREAL mines the substance and subtext of cyber-minded landmarks like Tron, Videodrome, Brainstorm, Terminator 2, Tetsuo, Lawnmower Man, Hackers, The Matrix, and dozens more. Soundtracked with deep cuts from the electronic underground, and styled with CGI-glitch FX, SO UNREAL maps the subcurrents of euphoria and dystopia simmering in the cinematic subconscious of the end of the 20th century.