Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
Description
The inimitable investigative style of Werner Herzog’s documentaries meets the Bay Area’s nexus of technology and innovation in Lo And Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. Jumping off from the invention of the Internet and a curious cast of characters from 1960s and 1970s computer science, Herzog quickly expands his gaze to dreams of the future and especially the consequences of intelligent robots. Originally commissioned to make a series of thought pieces around connectivity for cybersecurity firm NetScout, Herzog became fascinated by significant and famous thinkers in the field, such as Elon Musk and Sebastian Thrun. In a series of intense and revealing interviews, he challenges them to articulate an honest vision of the future and sets their musings against the “losers” of technological change—the gaming addicts, the low-rent hackers, the bullies and in an especially poignant sequence, a group of refugees from cellular communication, fleeing a society that doubts the veracity of their allergic reactions to the radio waves that keep us connected. In typical Herzog fashion, the title of the film itself is an inspired bit of pathos: the first message sent on the Internet in 1969 was meant to be “login,” but they only got to “lo” before the system crashed. —Noah Cowan
Filmmaker Werner Herzog first rose to fame as part of the New German Cinema movement of the 1960s and ’70s. The director built his early reputation on low-budget art-house films, such as Signs of Life (1968), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) before achieving modest success and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for Fitzcarraldo (1982). But the director-producer has recently garnered more attention in the US for documentaries, such as Grizzly Man (2005), the Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World (2007) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (SFIFF 2011). In 2006, Herzog was given the Film Society’s Directing Award.
Film Details
Language English
Year 2015
Runtime 98
Country USA
Director Werner Herzog
Producer Rupert Maconick, Werner Herzog
Writer Werner Herzog
Editor Marco Capalbo
Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger
Music Mark Degli Anotoni, Sebastian Steinberg