Documentary maker Herzog has little use for the Internet
Latest film at Hot Docs fest examines the pros and cons of our connected world
Werner Herzog has a rather distant relationship with the subject of his new documentary, Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.
The film traces the evolution and revolution of the Internet, from its triumphs to its perils and how dependent we are on it — well, most of us.
“Personally I do not use very much of the Internet,” the 73-year-old Oscar- and Emmy-nominated German filmmaker said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.
“I do email and eventually I look at Google Maps and sometimes I do Skype with family. But that’s about it. I do not have a cellphone.”
Herzog, an Oscar nominee for the 2007 doc Encounters at the End of the World, said he doesn’t have a cellphone “for cultural reasons.”
And those social media accounts bearing his name?
“All these are fake — Facebook, Twitter, you just name it, they’re voice imitators and they’re people who are giving advice under my name,” he said. “It’s, at least, I would say three dozen imposters out there.”
Lo and Behold, voiced by the moviemaking great, starts at the University of California, where the first Internet message was sent on Oct. 29, 1969.
Herzog looks at the Internet’s growth since then, from its use in science and robotics to its dark side.
Among those profiled is a couple who was devastated when a photo of their late daughter, decapitated in a car accident, was shared online.
Herzog also speaks with players addicted to online gaming, as well as a group who claim to have become very ill from radiation sickness caused by cellphone towers.
“As far as I know it’s very controversial and the main opinion is that it’s a psychosomatic issue,” said Herzog of their apparent illness.
“But I did not want to challenge anything and I wanted to give them at least a voice. Whatever the real medical findings are, we do not know. It’s very controversial, apparently, in the medical world.”
The doc also explores the Internet’s role in the development of artificial intelligence and the possibility of one day posting online with telepathy.
“They can already create images of your thoughts, like two elephants are crossing the Savannah, and we have a fuzzy image that you can actually create from the thought alone,” said Herzog, who will be at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with Salt and Fire.
“Or, for example, if you’re speaking with me in English, the MRI could identify that this language is English. If you spoke with me in German or in Spanish, the MRI pattern would recognize the grammatical pattern of a different language.” Lo and Behold is playing as part of a Herzog retrospective at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.