Discriminator is an interactive documentary exploring facial recognition databases. In 2006, director Brett Gaylor uploaded a photo of himself on his honeymoon to Flickr, a web 2.0 startup that had just been purchased by Yahoo. 13 years later, he discovered it had been used to train facial recognition systems by the Chinese military, Estee Lauder and the Moscow Police. A tale of how Internet culture’s early instinct to overshare helped to create technologies that are proliferating faster than the law can control, Discriminato

r brings audiences' faces into the frame in a combination of AI, AR and animation.

Watch Discriminator at www.discriminator.film


The Internet of Everything


A television documentary and web series about the Internet of shit things.

The Internet is invading all aspects of your life. No longer confined to your computer or your phone, the Internet is now in garbage cans, refrigerators, and the infrastructure of our cities. The future will either be a surveillance nightmare or an eco-utopia, the outcome determined by startups in Silicon Valley and Shenzen. The Internet of Everything captures our present moment , when both futures are in progress.

︎ A production of EyeSteelFilm for CBC Television.



Fortune


A short documentary in Augmented Reality

“When it comes to examinations of the psychology of money there’s a human tendency to tune out, to think we know it all and avoid thinking about our own limits. This is why the augmented reality vignettes of “Fortune!,” designed to be watched on a smartphone or tablet, aim to superimpose themselves on our world, to disrupt it with humor. “- LA Times

Money, from bills to coins, has no intrinsic value beyond what we’ve collectively agreed to grant it. However, there’s no denying that money governs our lives. This series of animated documentary shorts in AR for smartphones, tablets and social media platforms, explores that relationship.

︎ A co-production with AtlasV, the National Film Board of Canada & Arte. Premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival



Do Not Track


An interactive documentary that collects information about you while you watch it.

Do Not Track is a 7 part interactive documentary series exploring privacy and the web economy. The series was produced by Upian in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, Arte and Bayerischer Rundfunk. 

Released bi-weekly over a 3 month period, the documentary series collected data about users in order to help them understand how their personal information was used online.

︎ A co-production with Upian, the National Film Board of Canada, Arte & Bayerischer Rundfunk. Do Not Track was the recipient of the 75 annual Peabody Award, a Prix Gemeaux for Best Interactive Series, and the International Documentary Association Award for best series.


Watch Do Not Track here.

OK Google

An animated short film built from my son’s voice searches.

In the fall of 2017, I replaced my aging cellphone with a new device. While setting up my new phone with a Google account, I noticed that every voice search made over the last year had been saved and was available for playback. I also noticed that a high number of these searches had been made by my five-year-old son. I teamed up with my friend Darren Pasemko to animate what I discovered.

︎ A National Film Board of Canada film, Winner of 2019 Webby Award

OK Google from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.


IMPOSTER MEDIA
BRETT GAYLOR        FILMMAKER, PRODUCER, WRITER.