Sophie Compton and Reubyn Hamlyn’s British-American documentary about the harm of deepfakes won the SXSW Special Jury Award for its innovative storytelling and deservingly so. The two filmmakers use a clever and considerate way to let a young woman fictitiously named Taylor share her story of how she found deepfake pornography of herself online. With testaments, desktop form reconstructions, and lots of deepfakes, Compton and Hamlyn alert the audience to how terrifyingly widespread this kind of abuse is, and even more: how unregulated it is. Across the globe and 48 US states deepfake pornography is legal to make and spread, while victims remain helpless and unprotected. More than 90% of them are women. These chilling statistics are only part of the reason this documentary takes an activist stance and wants to raise awareness against the uncontrolled spread of face-swapping algorhythms amidst heated discussions around AI and ethics.
"A groundbreaking, creepy, fascinating, and important documentary about a phenomenon that's only going to grow in significance: the deepfaking of pornography."
— Owen Gleiberman
A college student searches for justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online.
A college girl who's shocked to find out she's been the victim of deepfake pornography online, tries to find justice and raise awareness to this wide-spread form of internet abuse.
Another Body performs an audacious critique of the invasive technology it stands up against by using deepfake in the first place. Taylor conceals her identity the very same way it has been taken away from her in the first place. But this time, as she uses it as a pre-condition to tell her story, she turns the evil highjacking of one's image against the abuser: she can search for him and eventually name him because she's protected. Perhaps this was the only way to make such a documentary without any further violations—of women and their images—but nevertheless, a smart move like that shifts the focus of conversation from harm to prevention, even when it comes to a topic as contested as AI.
#MyImageMyChoice should mean something to you
