Watch: ‘To Wong Foo’ Director Explores Our Digital Life in Exclusive Clip for TIFF Doc ‘InRealLife’
Beeban Kidron, who has had an eclectic directing career from “To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar,” “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” and the Jeanette Winterson adaptation “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,” is back with her new documentary “InRealLife,” which will screen as part of the Toronto International Film Festival‘s Mavericks section.
“InRealLife,” a reference to the popular phrase, sometimes shortened to “IRL,” that signifies offline life, explores the impact of online communication on the world’s teenagers, so-called digital natives.
According to TIFF, here’s the description of the film:
After observing the immersive behaviour of her own teenagers, director Beeban Kidron set out to answer the question: What exactly is the internet, and how is it changing us? She talks directly to teens about how technology shapes their expectations of friendship, their cognition, and their sexuality. She interviews experts including Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, writer Clay Shirky, Microsoft researcher danah boyd, and the MIT Media Lab’s Nicholas Negroponte. Her timely investigation also raises questions about the implications of data collection and who profits from it.
