Film Festival
Of all the films in the Film Festival, I was most struck by the films on memory and especially: We Only Attack Ourselves. I loved the image of the purple scarf flying away through the desolate landscape and destructive environment. It was very emotional – the music and the sadness and despair of being forced to become a cyborg. What is the message? Humans and cyborgs don’t mix? Did he lose his identity…did they lose their identity as a couple? They can no longer have a relationship? Or perhaps it was the change in form, from human to hybrid, that drove a wedge between them? Very thought-provoking…
Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto (2007) tells us that a cyborg is a “creature in a post-gender world;” I wonder, however, why some cyborgs (today) are depicted as either male or female, as Gumdrop (female) is as in that film because of “her” voice and body. I also love the contrast of past and present in Gumdrop with the futuristic robot and the old school black and white Charlie Chaplin scenes.
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