Biomimicry

The term “biomimicry” is borrowed from the name given to a field of engineering which uses nature to find solutions to design problems, giving society such things as Velcro and autonomous, insectoid robots. At its roots, biomimicry describes the process of reproducing life with technology. And it follows that the ultimate question is, “Could we ever reproduce human life, and what would that mean?”

Creating a perfect robot, one which could flawlessly mimic man’s thoughts, actions and emotions, poses several philosophical, scientific, and social questions. Machines exist in a digital realm of ones and zeroes: there is no contradiction in the code, and there is no soul in the casing. But we must ask of ourselves: how are we different?

The films selected here represent a cross-section of science-fiction, drama, action, and adventure stories, all of which focus on the divide between human and robot, and how technology can, in very real ways, make us less human. Films such as A.I. and Frankenstein address the problems of intimacy stemming from technology and its various applications; while Demonlover and I.K.U. present dystopic looks at the sexual alienation of the X-Tube generation. Paul Verhoeven’s underappreciated classic, Robocop, depicts a startling form of mechanized policing, where the letter of the law is followed without contradiction, and Godard’s Alphaville gives viewers a glimpse at a city taken over by machine thought, where emotions are repressed and love is forbidden.

Friday, April 3, 7 pm DOUBLE FEATURE!
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931, U.S., 71 minutes, 35mm)
Creation of the Humanoids (Wesley Barry, 1962, U.S., 75 minutes, video)
Artificial life forms expose the depths of human cruelty in this double feature—also two of Andy Warhol’s favorite films. Director James Whale, with the help of Boris Karloff’s body, invents the monster in Frankenstein as we know him, escaping his megalomaniacal creator only to be assaulted by his cruel, fearful neighbors. Then follow us from classic, expressionist Hollywood masterpiece to bizarre B sci-fi picture. In Creation of the Humanoids, Don Megowan and some other actors you’ve never heard of play survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Their next problem: rebellious cyborgs, who are reacting against the racism of the social order and the humans-only ruling group, “The Order of the Flesh and Blood.”

Wednesday, April 8, 8 pm
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
(Steven Spielberg, 2001, U.S., 146 minutes, 35mm)
Stanley Kubrick wrestled for years to resolve script problems plaguing a project that he envisioned as a futuristic Pinocchio. In 1985 Kubrick brought in Steven Spielberg to produce, and each tried to convince the other to direct. When Kubrick passed away in 1999, Spielberg took up A.I. with a renewed determination. The future they paint is a visually spectacular, grey and candy-colored future dystopia. Global warming has devastated the planet. To compensate for massive depopulation, human-like automatons called “mechas” have filled most service jobs, but childlike David (Haley Joel Osment) is a special robot built to imprint “feelings.” Can he find the Blue Fairy and become a real boy?

Thursday, April 16, 8 pm
eXistenZ
(David Cronenberg, 1999, U.S., 97 minutes, 35mm)
Fleshy man-made orifices and organic weapons abound in David Cronenberg’s paranoid techno-thriller. Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the world’s leading video game designer, pushing the envelope of what is possible with her latest invention: a virtual reality game that runs through a bio-organic console and attaches to each player through a bioport at the base of the spine. Just as she begins the test run, Geller is attacked by an assassin and is forced to flee to the virtual realm of the game. Reality and virtual reality become indistinguishable, and she must determine whether her life is truly at stake.

Friday, April 24, 8 pm DOUBLE FEATURE!
A Night of Digital Lust
WARNING: NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.
Demonlover
(Olivier Assayas, 2002, France, 115 minutes, 35mm)
A thriller ostensibly about corporate intrigue and betrayal, but also a meditation on the alienating effects of technology on the viewer, Demonlover tells the story of an American executive (Connie Nielsen) who travels to Japan to negotiate the distribution rights to an anime studio specializing in 3-D pornography. During the negotiations, Nielsen discovers the mysterious website hellfireclub.com, an underground internet domain which broadcasts extreme sadomasochistic videos starring real humans dressed as anime and video game characters. Nielsen sets out to find the webmaster of this increasingly popular site and is led down a bloody rabbit hole of slavery, lust, violence, and boredom.
I.K.U.
(Shu Lea Chang, 2001, Japan, 94 min, video)
Can the human orgasm be presented cinematically as anything other than porn? Marketed as a “sci-fi porn feature,” Shu Lea Chang’s controversial film, supposedly inspired by Blade Runner, is considered the first porn film ever screened at Sundance. In the Tokyo of the near future, the Genom Corporation is researching how to give customers full sexual gratification without the need for another person. To perfect their breakthrough, the I.K.U. chip, and to find out what arouses human beings, the company dispatches a hot shapeshifting cyborg named Reiko. A film that is what it is about—the failure and loneliness of sex by yourself—I.K.U. teeters between suggestion and warning.

Wednesday, May 6, 8pm DOUBLE FEATURE!
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995, Japan, 82 minutes, 35mm)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, 2004, Japan, 100 minutes, 35mm)
What happens when there is no longer a difference between human and robot? In the year 2029 humans and electronic networks have become seamlessly integrated—and manipulated by criminals. Eyes can be hacked into and minds can be copied and transferred into synthetic bodies. When someone calling himself the Puppetmaster is found to have programmed the minds of upper level government workers, a new crime-fighting unit is formed. Meanwhile a cyborg without a single brain cell is discovered to have a ghost or soul, and Major Motoko Kusanagi is given the case, throwing her into the midst of a cybernetic war, a struggle between ambiguous, ever shifting powers that confuses the very idea of humanity.

Friday, May 15, 8 pm
RoboCop
(Paul Verhoeven, 1987, U.S., 103 minutes, 35mm)
A near-future dystopian Detroit has been ravaged by violent crime (uncanny, right?), so the city decides to hire megacorporation Omni Consumer Products to revive their ineffectual Police Department. OCP takes the brutal murder of officer Alex Murphy as an opportunity to create a human/cyborg crime-fighting hybrid called RoboCop. RoboCop proves to be a highly effective, hyper-violent policing machine. But when a run-in with one of his murderers unlocks his human memories, RoboCop overrides his pre-programmed system and seeks some sweet vengeance. Yet another brilliant parody of the trifecta of American progress—technology, militarism, and big business—from Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.