Our communication devices are now so advanced that they offer us access to a new reality, one we can enter without any kind of physical connection. REAL takes the viewer on a meandering journey into this digital reality. It’s a place where we can change our identities, earn money and create safe spaces for our most secret fantasies.
Director Adele Tulli uses webcams, security cameras, and smartphones to thread the examples together. We see chat room users using VR to (almost) physically connect, a takeaway courier in Japan streaming his delivery run and an OnlyFans model serving her customers with sexual poses and music.
But these digital connections don’t cancel out the feelings of loneliness—the series of depressed influencers is proof of that. “Are we the freest generation ever?” asks a motivational speaker. Or are we prisoners in a virtual universe deprived of true connection?
Stills
