There is arguably no better subject for a documentary that changes with each screening than visionary musician and artist Brian Eno. A generative documentary assembled by newly developed software sounds like science fiction - but its endless iterations are definitely worth every real minute of your time. Eno is a man who continually reinvented himself over a career spanning more than half a century. Director Gary Hustwit realised he couldn't capture the eclectic multitalent in a conventional documentary and began thinking out of the box. Employing groundbreaking technology, Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes created something that's never been done before: a feature film that's never the same twice.
A guaranteed once-in-a-lifetime experience thanks to software that generates a different film about artist Brian Eno each screening.
Eno offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience, where no two screenings are the same. Drawing from thirty hours of interviews with Brian Eno and five hundred hours of archival footage, each screening generates an approximately 80-minute version of the film using specially developed software. Gary Hustwit, the mastermind behind this uniquely inventive project, has previously directed documentaries on topics such as the Helvetica typeface and industrial designer Dieter Rams - whose film Rams featured a soundtrack by Eno himself. The British musician, composer, producer, and visual artist has continually pushed boundaries, first with Roxy Music, then helping David Bowie and Talking Heads reinvent themselves, and later U2 in the '80s and '90s. And that’s just scratching the surface of his extensive career.
For Hustwit, condensing such a richly layered career into a conventional documentary seemed an impossible task. Thus, he and technologist Brendan Dawes devised a brilliant solution: a computer program selects different segments from the database for each screening. This means that at Film Fest Gent, you might see all of the aforementioned artists or, alternatively, perhaps Robert Fripp, Coldplay, or Devo.
Whether you find it eccentric or genius, it’s also remarkably fitting, as Brian Eno has been crafting music with a similar principle since the '90s. Like his music, this film is not a result of sheer randomness. The inner workings remain a mystery, but the parameters used by the computer program have been set by Hustwit, ensuring that each iteration of the film presents a coherent narrative. While you might not see the complete picture of Eno, this unpredictability is part of its charm. Attempting to encapsulate all of Eno’s significant achievements in one film would risk touching on too much without delving deeply enough. Instead, Eno allows for a more focused exploration of select topics, though which ones are chosen remains a delightful mystery. After viewing, you can genuinely claim to have seen a truly unique film.
Image gallery
Credits
Gary Hustwit
Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Mary Farbrother
Maya Tippett, Marley McDonald
Jessica Edwards, Gary Hustwit
Film First Co., Tigerlily Films
More info
English
United States of America, United Kingdom
2024
