Talk of artificial intelligence tends to float somewhere up in the cloud. “The Technological Sublime,” a documentary from director Jannes Callens that heads to the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, brings it back down to earth.
The film follows the physical supply chain that keeps AI running, starting at quartz mines in the Appalachians and moving on to Taiwan’s chip plants, Chile’s lithium fields, the cables that run under the sea and the click-workers of Kenya. Along the way, it sets out to show what the technology costs people and the planet.
“I have a fascination with subjects that are hard to visualize,” Callens says. “People tend to talk about AI as if it were something very abstract and invisible, but after doing some research it became clear to me that there is a very tangible ecosystem behind the myth of ‘green’ AI.”
An online image search for AI mostly turns up humanlike robots, he adds, and the absence of pictures of everything underneath pushed him toward the subject.
“This film is first and foremost a work of art that gives me the opportunity to tackle an interesting subject in a truly audiovisual way. I hope to bring some nuance into the AI debate, showing the essence of technological miracles without being blind for the material, ecological and human costs,” Callens says.
Callens’ previous documentary, “Dor (Longing),” about a young man who goes back to Romania to become a shepherd, won the Best Belgian Film award at the Brussels Independent Film Festival and was selected for Visions du Réel. The first scenes of the new film are already shot, and the team is now waiting to lock down the rest of its financing. Callens is meanwhile creating images for a stage play about humanity’s failure to see and face up to the threat of climate change.
Delegate producer Steven Dhoedt has a long-standing interest in new technology. One of his earliest documentaries, “Inside the Metaverse” (2010), looked at the buzz around virtual worlds long before Facebook rebranded as Meta.
“In a similar way, there’s plenty of hype around AI these days, but for a lot of people the technology remains an abstraction,” Dhoedt says. Callens’ take on the subject grabbed him straight away. “Instead of taking the sensational route, the film takes a more timeless, more grounded approach and I strongly believe that this is the type of film about AI we need these days.”
With filming spread across four continents, the producers are still looking for more investors and partners. Belgian broadcaster VRT has boarded the project, and talks are underway with other European broadcasters.
“TCCF gives us a real chance to bring this film to audiences in Asia,” Dhoedt says.
Working with James Chia-Hao Hsu of Reel Asia Pictures, its partner in Taiwan, the team also hopes to start conversations with distributors and sales agents at this stage. The film is a co-production between Brussels-based Visualantics and Cobra Films, Paris-based Tag Film and Taipei-based Reel Asia Pictures.
The Taiwan Creative Content Fest, organized by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), runs Nov. 6–9 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.