Viera \u010cak\u00e1nyov\u00e1 is a documentary filmmaker who likes to mix big ideas and surrealism into the
\nreality she captures. \u201cIt was not a simple direct journey for me to become a filmmaker from
\nbeing a kid. I don\u2019t even think my parents would have appreciated that idea very much then.\u201d
\nShe studied philosophy, history and French in her home country Slovakia.<\/p>\n
White on white and Frem are companion pieces, both filmed during the time that Viera stayed at
\na Polish base in Antarctica. Previously, she has made films where she incorporates elements of
\nfiction, documentary, experimental and animation, but for these two projects she decided on a
\nmore bare-bones style. White on white was not originally supposed to be made but started out
\nas more of a video diary for Viera to keep her sanity in the rough conditions that the location
\nposed. Frem is made from the perspective of AI and set in Antarctica. White on white is set from
\na human perspective, while interacting with AI.<\/p>\n
Viera studied screenwriting in Bratislava, but realized that fiction was not really up her alley, so
\nthen she made her way to Prague to pursue a degree in documentary filmmaking. \u201cI needed
\ndirect contact with reality, rather than something fabricated.\u201d Having to operate the equipment as
\na one person crew intrigued her as well.
\nThe AI in White on white is not an actual artificial neural network. Viera has done research and
\ninteracted a lot with neural networks in the past years. She wrote the messages herself that the
\nsupposed AI \u201cann_w\u201d sends her. She imagined what an AI network that had been fed on the
\ntheory of thermodynamics would respond with to her questions on the meaning of life, and
\nbeauty. Ann_w responds to Vieras questions with cold facts, that beauty is subjective and
\nmeaningless in the context of the universe. To ann_w the meaning of life is to dissipate solar
\nenergy, meaning that as everything on earth uses the UV rays and heat that the sun emits until
\nwe meet our inevitable death when the sun swallows the earth. Viera filmed and edited White on
\nwhite back in 2017. Actual AI networks back then were not as developed and \u201csmart\u201d as they
\nare today. For this reason, she chose to serve as the thinker behind a future, more developed
\nAI.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Frem) is shot from the point of view of an AI entity that is surveying its surroundings in
\nAntarctica. So there is barely any human element in it at all. It was a challenge for me to make
\nthis entity alive and to bring the audience into the head or the mind or the body of this thing and
\nsomehow make a connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
The material for White on white was recorded at the Polish base during the breaks Viera and
\nher two man crew took from filming Frem in the middle of nowhere. The duality between Frem
\nand White on white is very interesting in the way that Viera set out to tell an Antarctica story
\nfrom an AI perspective, but found along the way that her own voice had something to say on the
\nmatter. In post production, she presented the editing team with only a part of the material that
\nshe recorded, as a lot of it was too personal. When looking at it in relation to the material for
\nFrem, her editor suggested that they make a whole separate film as they had plenty to work
\nwith. Viera had not made a documentary with herself as the main character and narrator before.<\/p>\n
White on white bears a strong message of the importance of environmental protection. Viera
\nhad not been a particular advocate of the cause or involved in any such programs, although she
\nwas of course aware. It was the stay in Antarctica, in the middle of raw nature, that truly opened
\nher eyes. At the Polish base the surroundings are constantly changing, mostly due to global
\nwarming. \u201cNo one is allowed in Antarctica without support and supervision from one of the
\nresearch bases there. The Polish base is one of the biggest there so they were able to take my
\nteam; myself and two others. [\u2026] It is so surreal to see the juxtaposition between a team of
\nresearchers there that are recording the effects of global warming on the Arctic, and are all the
\nwhile getting huge shipments of resources from the other side of the globe and burning massive
\namounts of fuel just to survive that place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viera mentions that if she weren\u2019t a documentary filmmaker, she\u2019d probably pursue a career in
\nscience. She is very interested in the connection that can be made between documentary and
\nscience reports. In an upcoming project Viera will be looking at fungi and their underground
\nnetwork, and mentions that she\u2019s been following research into transforming fungal network
\ncommunication into music, and dialog. The film will show how the fungal biological structure is
\nable to process toxic waste into harmless materials. She will be looking at an old soviet era
\ndump site in Slovakia that is threatening to pollute the local soil and water supply. To tell the
\nstory, animation and documentary footage will be utilized along with other mediums. When
\nasked whether she has seen the apocalyptic series The Last of Us, Viera laughs and answers:
\n\u201cNot yet.\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Written by Katla Gunnlaugsd\u00f3ttir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Viera \u010cak\u00e1nyov\u00e1 is a documentary filmmaker who likes to mix big ideas and surrealism into the reality she captures. \u201cIt was not a simple direct journey for me to become a filmmaker from being a kid. I don\u2019t even think my parents would have appreciated that idea very much then.\u201d She studied philosophy, history and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n