FILM SERIES
Photographing the Ether: The Internet on Film, 1983—2022
Programmed by Jane Schoenbrun
Leading into our run of Jane Schoenbrun’s We're All Going to the World's Fair, BAM presents this selection of films about life online as reflected in the movies. The series ranges from early internet studio oddities to recent documentaries about the way we live online now, illuminating Chris Marker’s video game obsession, millennial Japanese cinema’s reckoning with the changes the internet brought to human connection, and more. Looking at the wide-ranging modes filmmakers have used to explain our new world, reflecting fascination and fear, these films are a vivid depiction of our virtual world.

In this 1983 sci-fi body horror classic, a TV exec gets caught up in a body-destroying alternate world.

A supernatural, revenge-seeking force tortures teenagers through their computer screens.

A computer hacker joins the battle to destroy the evil cyber-illusion enslaving humanity.

Hackers Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie fight corporate greed for cyberpunk thrills.

A prescient story about a bullied 8th grader who finds relief through managing a pop star’s fan site.

Jane Schoenbrun and Jordan Wippell curate a feature “mixtape” of YouTube artist Kati Kelli.

This archival documentary unpacks Slenderman, an online boogeyman created by the internet.

A thrillingly unclassifiable exploration of alienation in the age of hyper-connection.

A competitive high schooler joins Nerve, risking her future for a sinister online game.

A video game programmer is haunted by her dead lover in this sci-fi take on war and trauma.

Following a suicide, malevolent spirits take over the Internet in this influential horror film.

In this pairing, Marnie Ellen Hertzler explores relationships and technology that define us.

Penny Lane’s provocative documentary screens with Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s response to it.