Another Body follows a college woman and her search for justice after finding deepfake pornography of herself circulating the internet.
You know how you’ll sometimes get those suspicious links in a Facebook message from a friend. In this particular instance, it’s easy to see why it might be a suspicious link. But as it turned out, someone used deepfake technology to take her face and place it in a porn video. Why people are so bored and end up doing shitty things like this is beyond me.
Taylor, which isn’t her real name if I recall correctly, has her story told through a mix of video diaries. animation, and synthetic media. She deals with OCD and anxiety. The film tells us into both her real life and online existence. Learning about the porn videos has a serious impact on schooling and friendships. What happened to Taylor is not just a personal story for her but should impact all of us. How would you feel if you learned someone used your face in porn? Some of the victims started getting messages from strangers over Instagram after the deepfakes were discovered. I don’t know about you but this is just downright terrifying. It’s even more terrifying when one reads how 90% of deepfakes are non-consensual porn of women.
Put yourself in the victims’ shoes and think about what it means to have such trauma shatter your lives. I hesitate to think about the idea but what if a potential hiring manager saw an image of you on a porn site. The ramifications from these deepfakes are just drastic. What are we doing as a country to stop them? This isn’t a case of someone complaining about Luke Skywalker’s appearance in the season two finale of The Mandalorian. No, this is online misogyny. Taylor is not alone in being a victim as other women have had their faces stolen by people using deepfake technology.
Another Body shows a very terrifying side of the internet and one can’t help but feel empathy for the victims and their want for justice. Online misogyny is very real and women deal with it all the time, not just in person or on social media but people using someone else’s face for deepfake porn. If there’s any justice in the world, deepfake technology will be declared illegal. This is a problem that legislators really need to deal with rather than their daily harming of transgender youth.
DIRECTORS: Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn
SCREENWRITERS: Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn, Isabel Freeman
Another Body holds its world premiere during the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival in the Documentary Feature Competition. Grade: 3.5/5
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