Thursday, June 2, 2016

Werner Herzog Spotlights CMU Innovations in New Movie, “Lo and Behold”

When it comes to contemplating our technological evolution, only one filmmaker can do so with earnest curiosity and dry, philosophical wit: Werner Herzog. The renowned German director, whose previous works include Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, focused on the Pittsburgh tech scene for his latest film Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, a documentary that examines the past, present and future of the internet. Now the film has received a new trailer and release dates, two of which are set for local theaters.

During production, Herzog and his crew visited Pittsburgh to capture Carnegie Mellon University projects in action. The film features the four-limbed CHIMP robot at the National Robotics Engineering Center and a robot soccer team developed to defeat FIFA world champions. He also conducted on-camera interviews with various CMU faculty and staff members.

Produced by the service assurance and cybersecurity company NetScout, Lo and Behold also shows Herzog speaking with experts such as PayPal and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, Internet Protocol inventor Bob Kahn and hacker Kevin Mitnick, as well as people struggling to live offline in an increasingly connected world.

The film premiered last January at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired for distribution by Magnolia Pictures.

The latest trailer (the first one hit last January) contains footage of two chosen CMU subjects, brain researcher Marcel Just and Joydeep Biswas, a former Computer Science Department post-doctoral researcher behind the robot soccer team. Read more»