Reality Frictions: A Feature-Length Video Essay, presented by director & writer Steve Anderson

Reality Frictions explores the intersection of fact and fiction on the screens of Hollywood, highlighting moments when images, people or events from the real world intrude on the cinematic one. Set against the historical backdrop of the current fascination with machine learning and generative AI, Reality Frictions also touches on the phenomena of deepfake videos, “latent histories” and image synthesis that reveal the reciprocal relationship of human and machine vision. Richly illustrated with clips from more than 100 movies and TV shows, Reality Frictions is an entertaining, but also serious, investigation of media’s role in revealing truth and making history.

Steve Anderson is Professor and Associate Dean at UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television.  

This event is sponsored by the Hirschfield Film Endowment and the Film and Media Culture Department.