Introduction
This basic guide is designed to help screening organisers and teachers think about and engage with some of the issues presented in the film with their audiences in a constructive way. There are some questions below that could help open up helpful conversation, as well a summary of key points for further exploration.
Inspiring critical thinking, open-ended conversation, and action on the film’s specific arguments is a key goal.
This guide aims to help foster constructive screenings that remain focused on the issues and arguments raised in the film.
Synopsis
We live in a world of screens. The average adult spends the majority of their waking hours in front of some sort of screen or device. We’re enthralled, we’re addicted to these machines. How did we get here? Who benefits from this arrangement? What are the cumulative impacts on people, society and the environment? What may come next if this culture is left unchecked, to its end trajectory, and is that what we want?
Stare Into The Lights My Pretties investigates these questions with an urge to return to the real physical world, to form a critical view of technological escalation driven by rapacious and pervasive corporate interest. Covering themes of addiction, privacy, surveillance, information manipulation, behaviour modification and social control, the film lays the foundations as to why we may feel like we’re sleeprunning into some dystopian nightmare with the machines at the helm. Because we are, if we don’t seriously avert our eyes to stop this culture from destroying what is left of the real world.