This review was originally published on January 18, 2013…
From the same filmmaking team that brought us one of my favorite short films of 2012, Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke, comes #PostModem, another short film to add to my “awesome shorts” list. Opening with a bunch of children discussing mortality in a matter-of-fact, almost deadpan manner, the film sets up a sense of dread before moving on to the ways in which humans are striving for immortality. In this case, it’s all about living on through technology.
Which sets up everything from musical numbers to brutal instructions on how to embed a circuit board in your head to the value of a trash-eliminating vortex; #PostModem covers much ground in its investigation of eternal life and salvation through technology. And while it seems to hop around with slightly more restraint than someone might operate their TV remote, it still all works to paint an entertaining, intriguing and often bewildering, picture.
Some would argue that we’re inevitably moving towards a singularity where we live on through technology, and maybe that’s true, but maybe we don’t need to speed that process along by adding circuit boards to our foreheads or moving into cyberspace via internet avatar. I mean, ever had a hard drive stop working for you (or have an iPod die)? Now imagine your immortal soul fused with technology, housed in a hard drive; you really think that won’t die too? Singularity is putting all the eggs in one basket, so when they get dropped, everything goes with it.
But enough paranoia, don’t panic. Just sit back and sing “MegaMega Upload” to yourself again… if you ever stopped; if nothing else from the film achieves immortality, the ear-worm nature of that ditty just might…
