And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine

“The camera records what’s in front of it. What should we do with that opportunity?”

And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine is a plunge into the vast historic ocean of media culture. From the birth of the camera obscura to the screening of the first moving picture and from the invention of the webcam to the first viral video, the witty and thought-provoking documentary chases the rise of image culture as we know it. By collaging historic archive material of great dictators parading in front of cheering crowds with home videos, live-streaming content and clips of thrill-seekers hanging out at the top of a skyscraper, or harrowing press photography exhibiting violence, it offers an emblematic study of cinema and the social history it creates: What are the implications of being exposed to the billions of images competing for our attention?