Director: Peter Lynch
Cast: Steve Mann, William Gibson, Mitchell Kapor
Country: Canada
Year: 2001
Running Time: 87 min
Format: 35mm
Artist,
inventor, University of Toronto professor, and all-around
cybergeek Steve Mann is a self-professed cyborg (part man/part
machine). For decades he has lived his life "connected" to
his self-invented machinery, including a one-hand keyboard,
an eye-tap that allows him to view the world through a small
TV screen, and a camera that that feeds to his website so
that visitors can "be me rather than see me." As an artist,
Mann's cybernetic photography, known as "dusting", is a beautiful
process to watch. Meanwhile, he raises issues about public
surveillance and private space, about body and machine, and
the vision of reality in a logo-saturated world.
Cyberman is an enthralling, sometimes hilarious look at a
truly original thinker and provocateur, whom the filmmaker
describes as a combination of "Professor Gadget and Michael
Moore." The film takes a look at his interactions with his
students, family, sci-fi author William Gibson, and department
store security guards, often seen through the same video signal
that Mann witnessed "first hand."
--Skizz Cyzyk
Presented By: Peter Lynch
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Toronto's Peter Lynch has become one of the most important
Canadian filmmakers for consistently stretching and exploring
the boundaries of the documentary genre. Cyberman,
and his previous two features, Project Grizzly (1996)
and The Herd (1998) are all highly praised portraits
of men driven by their single-mindedness.
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