And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine

Jun 1, 2023

1h 28m

★ 6.9

Overview

From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity's unique obsession with the camera's image and the social consequences that lay ahead.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Plattform Produktion

Bullitt Film

Film i Väst

SVT

And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine Trailers

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Maximilien Van Aertryck

Self (archive footage)

Chris Anderson

Self (archive footage)

Joe Biden

Self (archive footage)

Tom Brokaw

Self (archive footage)

Edmund Carpenter

Self (archive footage)

Belle Delphine

Self (archive footage)

Park Dietz

Self (archive footage)

Adolf Hitler

Self (archive footage)

Kim Jong-un

Self (archive footage)

Xi Jinping

Self (archive footage)

Reed Hastings

In their vehicle, Laurie, Kristy and Linda live alone on the American roads. Like thousands of modern American nomads who can no longer afford to pay for their housing. With no money to spare, these three sixty-year old women are fleeing, in their own way, a part of their history that has left a deep mark on them. Driving away, they try to regain some form of peace. But as the miles and seasons pass, despite their impressive temerity and resilience, their quest for a better future is challenged by unexpected events that hit a country in crisis. Will they nevertheless manage, at the end of the road, to find the serenity they are looking for, in order to become someone again?

7.0

An Inconvenient Truth

May 24, 2006

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

8.5

Deep Time: Utmost Experience Beyond Time

Oct 14, 2023

No overview available.

5.3

After Porn Ends 2

Mar 28, 2017

After Porn Ends 2 picks up where its predecessor left off and not only turns back the clock to meet the oldest living stars in adult film's history, but goes in depth with some of Its most current retirees and juxtaposes their experiences in a life after porn. Delving deeper into society's ongoing stigmas of race, misogyny, and the reality of decreasing opportunities for these former VHS box cover stars. For some, their careers in adult entertainment is accepted proudly and without regret. In fact, it seems to have proven to be the pathway to their current happiness and inner peace. For others, however, a career in porn has proven to be a conduit to certain despair as they struggle to find a way to bury their past and emerge with a new career or calling.

7.9

Our Body

Aug 4, 2023

In a Parisian public hospital, Claire Simon questions what it means to live in women’s bodies, filming their diversity, singularity and their beauty in all stages throughout life. Unique stories of desires, fears and struggles unfold, including the one of the filmmaker herself.

7.4

Sicko

May 18, 2007

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.

7.9

What Killed the Roman Empire?

Nov 19, 2022

Why did the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe and the Mediterranean for five centuries, inexorably weaken until it disappeared? Archaeologists, specialists in ancient pathologies and climate historians are now accumulating clues converging on the same factors: a powerful cooling and pandemics. A disease, whose symptoms described by the Greek physician Galen are reminiscent of those of smallpox, struck Rome in 167, soon devastating its army. At the same time, a sudden climatic disorder that was underway as far as Eurasia caused agricultural yields to plummet and led to the westward migration of the Huns. Plagued by economic and military difficulties, attacked from all sides by barbarian tribes, the Roman edifice gradually cracked.

5.9

The One Percent

Apr 29, 2006

Jamie Johnson takes the exploration of wealth that he began in Born Rich one step further. The One Percent, refers to the tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly half the wealth of the U.S. Johnson's thesis is that this wealth in the hands of so few people is a danger to our very way of life.

6.0

Venus: Death of a Planet

Aug 28, 2021

Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored life-giving habitats similar to those on the early Earth. Today, Earth's twin is a planet knocked upside down and turned inside out. Its burned-out surface is a global fossil of volcanic destruction, shrouded in a dense, toxic atmosphere. Scientists are now unveiling daring new strategies to search for clues from a time when the planet was alive.

5.5

Ralph Stanley: An Eye for Wood

Jan 10, 2015

This documentary profiles a Maine craftsman and his son, who are among the last practitioners of the art of wooden boat building.

7.3

Global Metal

Jun 20, 2008

In GLOBAL METAL, directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West's most maligned musical genre - heavy metal - has impacted the world's cultures beyond Europe and North America. The film follows metal fan and anthropologist Sam Dunn on a whirlwind journey through Asia, South America and the Middle East as he explores the underbelly of the world's emerging extreme music scenes; from Indonesian death metal to Chinese black metal to Iranian thrash metal. GLOBAL METAL reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren't just absorbing metal from the West - they're transforming it - creating a new form of cultural expression in societies dominated by conflict, corruption and mass-consumerism.

6.6

The Venerable W.

Jun 7, 2017

A view of the religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhist through the portrait of the Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar.

4.0

9/11: Cleared for Chaos

Sep 11, 2019

On September 11, 2001, the unimaginable transpired when devastating attacks on the World Trade Center forced the shutdown of the entire U.S. airspace. Thousands of kilometres away in Gander, Newfoundland, a group of Nav Canada air traffic controllers suddenly had the lives of 33,000 people in their hands and had to think fast to find a place for them to go. Discovery uncovers how these unsung heroes managed to safely land 224 planes in four hours, without incident.

7.7

But Beautiful

Nov 14, 2019

In his new film, Erwin Wagenhofer is looking for the good and beautiful in this world.

8.2

Baraka

Sep 15, 1992

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

7.5

Titanic's Fatal Fire

Apr 15, 2017

The sinking of the Titanic sent shockwaves around the world and started debates that continue to this day. But new, explosive evidence from the most unlikely of sources may finally lay all arguments to rest and reveal, for the first time, the full story of what possibly doomed the "unsinkable" liner. Join us as we unveil recently discovered and never-before-seen photographs of the super ship that exposes shocking clues that investigators and historians once dismissed but can no longer ignore.

6.5

Air Jaws: Top Guns

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Shark cinematographers Andy Casagrande and Dickie Chivell travel to South Africa on a mission to capture the largest breaching great white shark ever recorded.

4.6

Patrick and the Whale

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Marine videographer Patrick Dykstra explores the wondrous world of whales in this breathtaking and revealing documentary.

7.0

Donald Trump, Dieu et les siens

Nov 5, 2024

Journalist Laurence Haïm, a 25-year U.S. correspondent, explores the complexities of this powerful nation. Following the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, she documents Trump’s campaign, the devotion of his supporters, and his appeal to the most religious and conservative wing of the American right.

7.2

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

Nov 3, 2022

A close examination of the Whakaari / White Island volcanic eruption of 2019 in which 22 lives were lost, the film viscerally recounts a day when ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, placing this tragic event within the larger context of nature, resilience, and the power of our shared humanity.