This independent film was made with no budget (adding to its authenticity) with no affiliations, is not-for-profit, and is released to the world for free for the purposes of critical discourse, education, and for cultivating radical social and political change. It is the culmination of nearly a decade’s worth of work in research, creation and production, with the aim of catalysing a much-needed critical response to the unquestioned technoculture.
My name is Jordan Brown and I’m an activist, artist, musician, and film-maker from Melbourne, Australia. All my work is independent and autonomous, driven by a deep passion in creating and supporting movements for positive social and political change.
I’m currently based in Berlin, Germany.
Stare Into The Lights My Pretties is my first feature-length documentary, which has already begun to screen internationally and has won some significant industry awards and accolades so far, including the “Edward Snowden Award” in Argentina, “Most Challenging Film” from Indie Lincs in Lincoln United Kingdom, and winner and semi-finalist accolades from events in Poland, Bangladesh, Russia, Ireland and Belgium.
Your financial support of this project at this critical moment can help keep it rolling.
After 5 years of research and production, I chose to publish this film online for free because I want this film to be accessible to as many audiences as possible. I worked hard on this project to make it a resource to question the very foundations of this digital age, and ask why we may feel like we’re collectively sleeprunning into some dystopian nightmare with machines at the helm. Its a not-for-profit independent film that I hope is a catalyst for questioning, reflection and social change.
My pitch to you here is that with your financial support, you can help me enter this film into international film festivals, and have it physically screened in cinemas across the globe, to provide the opportunity for as many eyeballs and minds to take it in as possible.
All funds for this campaign will go towards covering submission costs and fees of entering international festivals (which can be quite expensive for a freelancer like me without any financial backing or institutional support, other than that from my audiences—thank you!), and depending on how much we raise, to also begin paying for professional transcription services to translate the film into other languages.
Accessibility and this film being a catalyst for change is what this is all about.
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?
Stare Into The Lights My Pretties investigates the big questions of the digital age, with an urge to return to the real physical world. 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 I think we are, if we don’t seriously avert our eyes to stop this culture from destroying what is left of the real world.