US 2020, 93 min Director JEFF ORLOWSKI
As omnipresent as the air we breathe, social media is seemingly inescapable. Every time we check our phones or tap on the keyboard, Big Tech is listening, watching… and manipulating. In this timely, provocative new film, award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Coral, Chasing Ice) showcases experts on the frontlines of these issues in a riveting story-driven approach that is bound to have far-reaching consequences. The Social Dilemma exposes Big Tech’s insidious influence by examining how the underlying technologies they use are intended to manipulate human psychology in the service of their business models. Surprisingly, the main critics are many of the very same engineers and tech executives who created these platforms in the first place. Masterfully juggling interviews with a fictional storyline of a family caught in the grips of social media, Orlowski employs the full range of his narrative skills to sound the alarm, calling for immediate individual and collective action.