Faces of Death
For stressed content moderator Margot Romero, working for the streamer Kino, how much is too much, and when is it too late? Videos posted to the platform without requiring prior approval, it is only if and when they are flagged with concerns that they are reviewed ex post facto, guidelines clearer on educational material which is direct rather than ambiguous footage of women being assaulted while unconscious or children being mauled by bears, leeway granted by uncertainty and anonymity.
Supervisor Josh disinterested in her genuine concerns and refusing to budge when the stated corporate position of protecting the young and impressionable approaches the slippery slope of censorship, despite circumstantial evidence linking disappearances of online personalities to a series of videos of staged murders her appeal to bring in the police is refused as it will “draw negative attention to the company.”
Margot (Barbie Ferreira) forced to investigate on her own and finding a link to a notorious 1978 “documentary” which her roomie Ryan (Aaron Holliday) conveniently has a rare copy of on VHS, Faces of Death is directed by Daniel Goldhaber from a script co-written with Isa Mazzei, inspired by the controversy over John Alan Schwartz’s original of the same name, some of the footage genuine, obtained from news channels, some of it recreated and some of it staged.
A thankless job which triggers Margot’s trauma, the death of her sister caught on camera and callously leaked by the police leading to her being taunted as the crying “train girl,” Josh (Jermaine Fowler) says they are “not the morality police,” yet that is what they should be, Faces of Death existing in the global grey space of the internet where no one enforces rules and those who should take responsibility shrug their shoulders and cash the cheques.
Every action of self-centred influencer Samantha Gravinsky (Josie Totah) designed to boost her profile yet complaining when she gets the wrong kind of attention, a non-consensual role in the restaging of Faces of Death by psychotic content creator Arthur Spevak (Dacre Montgomery) was likely not her next planned career move, taking advantage of tech savvy and “the attention economy” to kill with anonymity, Margot’s attempts to track him marking her as his next target.
Ferreira a powerful final girl, the film plays on the refusal of big tech to accept any culpability for self-governance, of the awfulness of anonymous internet voices which often belong to people just as bad in person, of the difficulty in tracking and proving virtual crime, of a society where poor judgement and irresponsible behaviour are entertainment, encouraged and rewarded, the victims laughed at and the tears of the families mocked.
Edinburgh International Film Festival continues until Wednesday 19th August
