Artificial intelligence shares the stage with the stars at the Sundance festival

The Sundance independent film festival begins Thursday in the United States, for an edition where the emergence of artificial intelligence, addressed by several filmmakers, will share the spotlight with stars like Kristen Stewart and Pedro Pascal.

Co-founded by actor Robert Redford, this event is being held until January 28 in the mountains of Utah (west), at more than 2,000 meters above sea level. It constitutes an essential launching platform for many independent films and documentaries, seeking distributors.

Among the 90 productions selected this year, the upheavals linked to AI occupy pride of place, just a few months after having largely contributed to the strikes which paralyzed Hollywood, where actors and screenwriters feared being replaced by robots.

The documentary “Love Machina”, for example, follows the efforts of a couple to perpetuate the love that binds them beyond their death, by transferring their consciousness to a humanoid.

Its director Peter Sillen considers himself “lucky” that the outcome of this project, started in 2017, coincides with “public awareness of AI”, propelled to the forefront by the progress of conversational robots like ChatGPT.

Another documentary, “Eternal You”, plunges into the opaque and flourishing world of start-ups which attack the mourning market, by offering to converse with avatars capable of mimicking a loved one died thanks to an AI based on his memories.

On the fiction side, former “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart is starring in “two of the most talked about films at the festival,” warns programming director Kim Yutani.

In “Love Lies Bleeding”, the actress plays a weight room manager who falls in love with a bisexual bodybuilder. A love story put to the test by a series of violent events.

She also stars in “Love Me”, a film mysteriously presented as an online romance between “a buoy and a satellite” in a post-human world.

Thursday evening, the festival will open with the screening of “Freaky Tales”, with actor Pedro Pascal starring in a series of stories taking place on the same day in 1987. A story where punk teenagers, skinheads, a rap battle and a basketball star.

Another highly anticipated film, the comedy “Thelma” features a grandmother embarked on an anthology of action, in a third age version of the “Mission Impossible” series.

“I hope we get distributed by someone who will allow us to appear in theaters first, then on streaming,” said lead actress June Squibb, 93.

Darlings of Sundance, directors Steven Soderbergh and Richard Linklater come to defend their latest projects. The first signs “Presence”, a scary thriller with Lucy Liu in a haunted suburban house, while the second offers a portrait of her hometown in the documentary series “God Save Texas”.

In addition to artificial intelligence, the documentaries once again deal with very diverse themes this year, ranging from the late emergence of the #MeToo movement in Japan to the future of American democracy.

“War Game” thus follows an exercise between senior intelligence officers and American politicians, who submit to a role-playing game to imagine their management of a coup d'état after a contested presidential election.

In the middle of an election year, “it is certainly disturbing to know that the games can be very close to reality,” said the new festival director, Eugene Hernandez.

Another chronicle of American society, “Will & Harper” follows the coming out of a transgender woman who travels across the country.

Finally, Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, a leading figure in the movement which made it possible to reform the Japanese Penal Code to broaden the definition of rape, offers “Black Box Diaries”. A diary which traces her accusations of rape against a manager of a television channel, and her fight against misogyny to improve the handling of sexual violence by the justice system.

“I don't know what to expect, but it's America, so I hope I can meet people who will also share their experiences,” she confided before the broadcast of his documentary, scheduled for Saturday.

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