Don’t believe everything you read. We all know that phrase, but what about believing everything you see? Editing and manipulation ever present, the moving image is a lot easier to fall for – and much more dangerous. Now with the introduction of AI, the perils are even greater, and that’s what 09/05/1982 explores in an 11 minute documentary.
From the technical filmmaking wizardry of Jorge Caballero and Camilo Restrepo, we land on 9 May 1982. Referencing a day of political upheaval in an unnamed Latin American city, it appears that long lost footage and commentary from the pivotal moments has been unearthed. Grainy and loud with all the sound effects of the ancient projector gears, the day’s recounting looks entirely realistic with all the standard celluloid anomalies of the time that brings the viewer into the events.
All AI generated, we are open to the presentation and the persuasiveness begins in the ordinary. The quiet countryside, the well ordered bustling city, young men playing soccer and simple urban commerce are as everyday as it gets.
Taking its time to segue to the disorder, the pace is on point. Thus, the fictional forces behind the scenes want us to believe that excess of blaring sirens, property destruction and random bullet holes was not the order of the day, and that radical agents of violence are solely to blame.
The stage is now set for the human touch to distort the events so the official version begins to make its case. In voiceover, the sedate narrator delivers the party line as if there’s absolutely no wiggle room to interpret the events. His tone is beyond convincing, and as the city fires openly burn, the argument is bolstered that the blame belongs solely on the alleged perpetrators.
Still, his words are nothing more than the standard talking points that those in power have always used. All too familiar, we know full well, and the disease of government distortion is not contained to just this city.
So the question for the ages cannot be escaped. Why do we keep falling for what the powerful want us to believe?
Fake or real in terms of the imagery, the game the powerful play is the same. But now with the advance in technology, deception just got easier and makes the potential for misinformation and mass indoctrination more widespread.
Of course, we can fight back. Keep asking questions and never stop doubting the official version, because AI raises the stakes and 09/05/1982 makes that clear.