Film essay, 4K. 20 min.
Postproduction: Truels Zeiner-Henriksen
VFX: Peder Opland / SCREAM MEDIA
A film essay on communication, resilience, and rural communities in the age of Tech Giants – explored from a personal perspective. When the filmmaker’s childhood school in a small northern village in Norway was bought by Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink program, the event sparked reflections on what is at stake as rapidly evolving digital technology infiltrates everyday life.
The film weaves personal narrative about SpaceX’s intrusion into the home village together with the village´s collective protest, alongside reflections on place, connection, digital technology, bodily experience. It explores dilemmas regarding attachment, freedom, nostalgia, and progress.
Central to this exploration is perspective, as well as sound: the hum of digital infrastructure, the laughter of children, and the rhythm of weather and nature. The film asks: what is the sound of a vibrant place?
Big Tech Blues offers a local view on the digital industry’s subtle encroachment into rural areas. It explores the complex relationship people have with their surroundings highlighting the double bind of digital technology - our dependence on it as we confront its consequences..
A film by Elisabeth Brun
With Eivind H. Natvig, Director of Photography & co-producer.
Music: Alexander Rishaug
Postproduction: Truels Zeiner-Henriksen
Supported by Fritt Ord, North Norwegian Film Centre/Arctic Films by Kalle Løchen and Rachel Andersen Gomez, Norwegian Film Institute - NFI
See trailer here
Festivals / Curated filmprogrammes:
2025 - Arctic Film and Moving Image Festival AMIFF (NO), Curated
2025 – The Norwegian Short Film Festival (NO), Official Selection. World Premiere.
2025 - Barents Spektakel, Kirkenes (NO) - Panel screening, Work in progress.
2024 – Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) (NO) – “Gnistsambandet / Sparks” - Curated exhibition screening, Work in Progress
2024 – Festspillutstillingen / Arctic Arts Festival + LIAF, Galleri Nord-Norge, Harstad (NO) - Curated exhibition screening, Work in Progress
2024 – Vesterålen Film Festival VÅFF, Strengelvåg skole / Stokmarknes Kino (NO) - Work in Progress presentation
Image credits: film still Big Tech Blues / Eivind H. Natvig, Kjell Ove Storvik/LIAF
Reviews :
“ ..a poignant protest song against Big-Tech..” - Wallpaper Magazine
“..the film gives hope for the community´s ability to come together and resist..” - Billedkunst
“..ironically, it is a story of communication breakdown within the business of global communication networks..” - The Art Newspaper
“The story, which is beautifully and skillfully documented, captures the precarious tension between periphery and globalization. Most people would indeed prefer to be better connected, to be in contact more quickly, but at what cost? ... In an effective way, Big Tech Blues manages to comment on the complexity of human encounters with modern technology (industry)…”
- Sofie B. Ringstad, Stavanger Contemporary Art
“..a sensous documentary about collision - collision between tech giants and small rural communities, collision between visual forms of expression, collision in communication (...) one of the best documentaries in this years programme (at the Norwegian Short Film Festival).” - Thor Joachim Haga, Z-Filmtidsskrift
