fiscal sponsorship
Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big Brother and the Prophetic Warnings of Marshall McLuhan
No Image To Display
TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
This documentary will examine how toxic elements of our digital environment are dramatically transforming society in negative ways -- just as the prophetic, popular futurist Marshall McLuhan predicted 60 years ago.
SYNOPSIS
This documentary will examine how toxic elements of our digital environment are dramatically transforming society in negative ways -- just as the prophetic, popular futurist Marshall McLuhan predicted 60 years ago. We’ll examine the unforeseen social and political problems caused by the digital revolution, and highlight the need for laws and regulations to protect citizens, especially the most vulnerable.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
After making ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE and THE CORPORATE COUP D’ÉTAT, I wanted my next film to be about the growing digital dystopia that is engulfing all of us. DIGITAL TSUNAMI: Big Tech, Big Brother, and the Prophetic Warnings of Marshall McLuhan is the film I came up with, and I believe it can make a difference. Like THE CORPORATE COUP D’ÉTAT and ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE, it will document injustice and societal harm being overlooked or underestimated because people are not seeing the big picture and historical context. It will complete a trilogy of films bringing critical thought to crucial problems faced by society, galvanizing audiences and leaving them determined to take action. Many of us are aware that if we don’t fix our planet’s natural, physical ecology, we’re doomed. Fewer people realize that if we don’t fix our planet’s “media ecology” we may also be doomed. The good news is, we don’t have to be doomed. We can fix things. But only if we get mad as hell and fight back. The great social reformer Frederick Douglass, when asked what advice he’d give a young person wanting justice, replied: “Agitate, agitate, agitate”. I want this film to leave audiences fighting mad and ready to agitate. As I began researching this project, I was surprised to find that the famed “media guru” Marshall McLuhan had warned of these problems back in the sixties, even though the press inaccurately portrayed him as a cheerleader for the electronic/digital revolution. I also learned about an international organization of scholars and authors called the Media Ecology Association who were following in McLuhan’s footsteps. I spoke with many of them at the MEA global conference in Toronto, and their insights inform our extended sizzle reel. Password: Tsunami I believe passionately that critical thought can lead to meaningful action and change that will tame the Digital Tsunami. If McLuhan were alive today I think he’d say exactly what he said in 1966: “The only alternative is to understand everything that’s going on, and then counter and neutralize it as much as possible, turn off as many buttons as you can, and frustrate them as much as you can... I don’t choose to just sit and let the juggernaut roll over me.”
KEY CREW
Fred Peabody - Writer/Director/EP
Fred Peabody wrote and directed the 2019 theatrical release THE CORPORATE COUP D’ÉTAT and the 2016 theatrical release ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I. F. STONE. Fred is an Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker whose credits include seven years as a producer- director on the acclaimed CBC investigative program THE FIFTH ESTATE. In 2003 he was Supervising Producer on PERFECT ILLUSIONS, a PBS documentary about eating disorders in young women. His film on the childhood exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets was nominated for an Emmy in 1998, and he won an Emmy in 1989 for a film about wild horses rescued from starvation and abuse.
Peter Raymont - Executive Producer
Producer, director, journalist, writer, Peter Raymont has produced and directed over 100 films and TV series during a 44-year career.
Raymont’s films have been honoured with 52 international awards including 13 Geminis (45 nominations), Gold and Silver Hugos and The Sesterce d’Argent, among others. His documentary feature, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire received the 2007 Emmy for Best Documentary and the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award.
Raymont’s films are often provocative investigations of “hidden worlds” in politics, the media, and bigbusiness. His films are informed with a passion for human rights and social justice.
A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman (2007) and Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (2009) were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Long Form Documentary. They both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. A Promise to the Dead won 9 awards, including the DGC Award for Best Documentary and the 2008 Academy of Canadian Cinema’s DonaldBrittain Award for Best Social Political Documentary. Genius Within, co-directed by long-time collaborator Michèle Hozer, was released theatrically in Canada, USA, Germany and Australia.
Raymont recently co-directed and co-produced Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power and Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, which was selected as the opening night film for TIFF 2019.
Jeff Cohen - Executive Producer
Jeff Cohen was an executive producer on ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE and THE CORPORATE COUP D’ÉTAT. Jeff was founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, where he was an associate professor of journalism for 10 years. He founded FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), a leading U.S. media watchdog group. Jeff has been a consultant and/or interviewee on many award-winning documentaries, including “Shadows of Liberty”, “War Made Easy”, “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism”, and “The Panama Deception”. He has also been an on-air commentator at CNN and MSNBC. He is the author of “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media”.
Iris Ng - Director of Photography
Iris Ng is a cinematographer whose most notable work turns a critical lens on social issues, justice, and filmmaking itself. Her background in visual art, photography, and music have enriched her work with artists and filmmakers since 2008. Her body of work includes the Academy-shortlisted documentaries Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012) and Shirkers (Sandi Tan, 2018), as well as award-winning films, A Better Man (2017), This River (2016), Min Sook Lee's Migrant Dreams (2016), Michelle Latimer's Nuuca (2017), Phyllis Ellis' Toxic Beauty (2019), and Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi's Emmy Award-winning series Making A Murderer (2015 & 2018). She has also collaborated with filmmakers Fredrik Gertten, Vikram Jayanti, Richard Fung, Michelle Shephard and artists Chris Curreri, Oliver Husain, Luis Jacob, Annie MacDonnell, and Bambitchell. Iris also captures transitions for the series Kim's Convenience and shot the Sundance 2020-premiered digital series Hey, Lady! (2020).
Ania Smolenskaia - Editor
Since 2007 I have edited award-winning documentaries and content, commercials and short films. The most recent feature length documentary that I’ve cut, RELENTLESS, won a Silver Dolphin at Cannes.
My first industry job was producing and editing news for an independent news network in Toronto and Washington, DC. I’ve done everything from in-studio interviews to on-the-ground coverage of the US Presidential elections.
I then moved to London, UK and over my 10 years there I have edited and post-produced more than 200 films for independent productions as well as global brands like Hugo Boss, Land Rover, Jaguar, McLaren, Nespresso and Coca-Cola.
I have also directed content and commercials for Coca-Cola, McLaren and Richard Mille. And recently completed my debut narrative short, HIGHER GROUND.
Michelle Osis - Composer
Michelle Osis is an Ontario-based composer for Film, TV, and advertising. She emigrated from Sydney Australia in 2014 where she worked as a freelance screen composer and has composed music on a number of award-winning films including, A Little Bit Behind (dir Paul Slater), Let It Rain, and Bamboozled (dir Matt Hardie). Michelle scored the award-winning films Fake Blood, Alive (both directed by Rob Grant), Knuckleball (dir Mike Peterson) co-composed with CFC alumni David Arcus, The Corporate Coup d'Etat (dir Fred Peabody), and Bloodthirsty (dir Amelia Moses). She also scored the feature film Juggernaut (dir Daniel DiMarco) where she had the pleasure to work alongside Mark Korven, as well as Neil Parfitt and Grammy award-winning musician Garry Kvistad, recording various instruments including Mark Korven's 'Apprehension Engine'.
Most recently, you can hear her music on the David Suzuki narrated documentary series The Nature of Things: The Science of Fear. Michelle received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her work on The Corporate Coup D’Etat in 2020 and a 2021 Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Score for her work on Bloodthirsty. Michelle is also a classically trained pianist and an electronic music producer (AKA Imperial Visions) and recently released her first single 'Dopamine' on all music streaming platforms.
She is a Canadian Film Centre Slaight Music Residency program graduate, holds a Graduate Certificate in Screen Music at the Australian Film Television Radio School, and Bachelor of Music in Composition and Music Production at the Australian Institute of Music.
Connect With The Filmmakers:
ACCOLADES
Help promote my fundraising campaign
Put our donation widget on your website
The Gotham Film & Media Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding, developing and celebrating the people and projects that shape the future of story.