/Imagine
2023 · 2m · France
Directed by Anna Apter
Genres: experimental, satire
Tones: contemplative, dark, provocative
A 2-minute AI-generated experimental satire exploring what it's like to grow up in a world where reality and virtuality constantly merge, using Midjourney-generated imagery and voice-over text prompts to critique the effects of social media on youth.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two minutes of Midjourney slop dressed up as a critique of digital alienation. 'AI as executor rather than decision-maker' is the kind of sentence that means nothing — and the result is precisely the thing it claims to interrogate.
Two minutes of Midjourney-generated imagery reflexively critiquing digital unreality is the conceptually-correct gesture, and Apter is honest about AI-as-executor. That said, the medium ages by the month, and I suspect this dates faster than it cuts.
Two minutes of pure Midjourney imagery with the AI used as executor rather than decision-maker is a reflexive framework for the social-media critique, but at this runtime and with this much of its DNA outsourced to a tool, the craft conversation is genuinely complicated. 39K views says it provoked something.
Reviews
By the criteria of moving viewers, making them think, and appreciating aesthetics, /Imagine is an unqualified success.
Apter uses AI as an executor, not as a decision-maker, with each image generated via highly detailed prompts describing physical attributes, emotions, camera blocking, and other cinematic elements.
Festivals
- Nikon Film Festival 2023, Best Director (Prix de la mise en scène)
- Nikon Film Festival 2023, Critic's Choice (Prix de la Critique)