ROBOLOVE reflects on the strategies of men and women involved with the creation of humanoid, android robots. Robots that will perhaps one day expand the human body and the human life.
From an exciting variety of perspectives we understand the immense complexity of this topic. Featuring Japanese robotics guru, Hiroshi Ishiguro, to the transhumanist, Natasha Vita More - and many more.
While the difference between humans and androids is gradually washing away, the tension between technology and social responsibility is growing as much as utopian visions are further expanding. From this mosaic, a tense ambivalence emerges, that questions these futuristic technologies – and is full of love for those who dare to create these new machines that try to mirror our humanness.
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While shooting the film we were repeatedly disappointed at how little human-like robots are actually already able to do, both in terms of movement and cognitive skills. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to merely foment fear by proclaiming the imminent supremacy of the new “others”, at least not in the social realm. I believe the issue is more to consider calmly what this phenomenon could have in store for our private lives and whether we are equipped for it as a society. On top of that, technology doesn’t fall from the sky. We humans are the ones that create technology, program programs, store our biases unintentionally in algorithms. The “evil” that frightens us is at the same time that which we now make use of every single day. We should embrace self-reflection when it comes to our own interaction with new technologies – something I hope this film encourages viewers to do.
Enjoy ROBOLOVE
"There is this notion that the heart and soul of humans are very complicated and important things. But in fact, it's not that difficult to simulate human emotions with an android robot."
"Computers may use artificial intelligence to bring our personalities, our memories, our preferences to life in the form of an avatar. Or be downloaded into a robot like BINA 48."
"When you are in a relationship you might guard certain things about your personality because you think your partner may not like it. So in that sense I think AI and robots can be a tremendous tool benefit. Because we can be ourselves, we won’t be judged."
"For 30 years I have been dreaming of the perfect personal assistant. That was just a dream for me, but I hope it'll come true when I'm old and need one of them."
"In the foreseeable future, we will definitely need certain kinds of robotics or humanoids to carry out tasks that are too hard for humans. In Europe, we have many elderly people. A lot of people who are alone. So one way to overcome loneliness is to own a machine."
"We program the robots to have the appropriate emotions at the appropriate time. But humans are programmed too, right. I don’t know if there is that much difference when we are programming a robot as when parents are programming their kids."
"As a child, I always thought that my family, friends and everyone who meant something to me would live forever. But as I grew up, I realised that people betray you, they leave you and ultimately they disappear when they die."
"Everyone will be backing up themselves 24/7 if not nanosecond to nanosecond. So in that case, if and when that’s possible, which I do think it will be possible, then if this body goes, we will be able to have a body like the one I designed."
"Why do we create humanoid robots? I suppose the reason is that we're trying to give human features to entities that are supra-human. There's also a debate in Christianity about whether God was in fact created in the image of humans."
"I have an issue with the idea of using a body like that. People get the idea that they can do anything with an image. Because we are talking about human images, representations of women."
"Because men have a higher purchasing power, the visible result only reflects male fantasies. So female robots are young and small and look like slender white women."
With the ethical questions there is a problem maybe with children, if they get too attached to the robots."
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Director, Script:
Maria Arlamovsky
Cinematography:
Sebastian Arlamovsky
Sound:
Andreas Hamza
Hjalti Bager-Jonathansson
Thomas Cervenca
Sergey Martynyuk
Thomas Funk
Editing:
Emily Artmann
Maria Arlamovsky
Alexander Gugitscher
Sebastian Arlamovsky
Soundediting & Sounddesign:
Andreas Hamza
Re-recording mixer:
Thomas Pötz
Music:
Andreas Hamza
Boris Hauf
Digital Imaging Technician:
Thomas Cervenca
Unit Managers:
Jona Simon
Juliane Beer
Weina Zhao
Production Managers:
Katharina Posch
Antonia Bernkopf
Executive Producer:
Michael Kitzberger
Producers:
Michael Kitzberger
Wolfgang Widerhofer
Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Markus Glaser
Production:
NGF - Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH
With support of:
Österreichisches Filminstitut
Filmfonds Wien
ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen
Filmstandort Österreich
„On the one hand, the range of possibilities offered by this technology is beguiling, but nonetheless we find ourselves asking whether a system which gradually renders human-to-human contact obsolete is really the way ahead. How far are you personally prepared to share all your thoughts and feelings with the rest of the world via a robot? Questions like this occupied us for many hours and were the subject of much debate.“
"ROBOLOVE, with its stunning images by Sebastian Arlamovsky, is a frightening documentary: do we really want our future in the hands of these technocratic scientists, who at best will replicate the contradictions of human life today?"
Filmuforia
DOK Leipzig – International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. International Competition, 2019
Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival, 2019
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, 2020
Future Gate Sci-Fi Film Festival, Prague, Brno, 2020
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2020
Sotto le stelle dell'Austria Festival, Rome, 2020
International Documentary Film Festival DOKer, Moscow, 2020
Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, Warsaw, 2020
MOLDOX International Documentary Film Festival for Social Change, 2020
Bergen International Film Festival, 2020
International Festival of Popular Science and Educational Films The World of Knowledge, St. Petersburg, 2020
Tohorror Fantastic Film Fest, Torino, 2020
Cambridge Film Festival, 2020
Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Budapest, 2020
Kasseler Dokfest, 2020
FICCI Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias, 2021
a.o.
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