Thursday, October 24, 2002

Last night i had the pleasure of seeing Lynn Hershman's new film Teknolust at a screening presented by duke's ISIS program. At first i was trying my hardest to be that academic and context-savy audience, ready to unpack the film, but i soon sat back and felt like a cub scout at a warm sci-fi campfire. The film used clips of the Man with the Golden Arm (which you should rent if you haven't seen it recently) and i kept thinking of the addict frankie machine (frank sinatra's oscar role), and how In Teknolust, men get infected by a computer virus. It seems that films have dealt with biogenitcs and other scary technology in same way that Frankie's world dealt with smack: either you kick it cold turkey or you die. Teknolust presents a world with some complicated yet hopeful options.