Norway | 2025 | 20 minutes | Norwegian with English subtitles
When the filmmaker’s childhood school in a small northern village in Norway is bought by Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink program, the event sparks reflections on what is at stake as rapidly evolving digital technology infiltrates all aspects of everyday life.
Big tech Blues is film essay on local resilience, and communication in the age of Tech Giants – explored from a personal and local perspective.The film weaves personal narrative about SpaceX’s intrusion into the village´s collective protest, with reflections on attachment, freedom, nostalgia, and progress. It provides a local view on the digital industry’s subtle encroachment into rural areas, highlighting the double bind of digital technology - our dependence on it as we confront its consequences.
Written, directed and produced by Elisabeth Brun
Director of Photography & co-producer: Eivind H. Natvig.
Music: Alexander Rishaug
Post-production: Truels Zeiner-Henriksen
Poster design: Sterre Roza
Official selections:
Selected exhibitions & curated screenings:
- MedienKunstTage NRW, Dortmunder U (DE)
- Lofoten International Art Festival / LIAF (NO)
- Festspillutstillingen / Arctic Arts Festival (NO)
- Vesterålen Filmfestival, VÅFF (NO)
- Arctic Moving Image and Film Festival / AMIFF (NO)
- Barents Spektakel (NO)
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
Image credits: film still Big Tech Blues / Eivind H. Natvig.