Film Review: ‘Future My Love’

★★☆☆☆

Offering an abstract glimpse of a distant utopia which might just be within humankind’s reach, experimental Swedish filmmaker Maja Borg’s Future My Love (2012) will almost certainly struggle to put “bums on seats” over this new release-packed weekend, but may reward a small sub-section of open-minded viewers with the patience and perseverance to join Borg on her futurist foray. Narrated throughout by the documentary’s director, who laments the loss of her first love whilst musing over our collective fates, there are sadly only occasional flashes of inspiration to be found within this arch demi-installation piece.

Hitchhiking her way towards 97-year-old freethinker Jacque Fresco’s Venus Project situated in the state of Florida, Borg takes time to gauge public opinion on the nonagenarian futurist. Most view him as a harmless kook, removed from the outside world and happier that way. It’s when we (and Borg) meet Fresco face-to-face, however, that much of Future My Love’s initial intrigue begins to dissipate. Bogged down in a mire of new age technocracy – a social strata orchestrated by technicians – and speculative theorems, this honest think piece quickly unravels, providing only the most surface-level of commentaries on the recent global economic crisis and perceived impending collapse of the free market. Only with technology can we be saved.

There are, of course, a handful of intriguing concepts put forward over the course. Fresco’s infatuation with 3D printing (a process used to rebuild a British patient’s face as recently as this week) is particularly interesting, as are his predominantly humanist motivations. Unfortunately, by wrapping up her interviews with Fresco in a deeply personal expression of remorse and regret at opportunities squandered, Borg inadvertently alienates both herself and her latest challenging work from its potential audience. Her pain is undoubtedly genuine, but it’s hard not to think that her staunch individualism would be at great odds with Fresco’s unilateral dreams of a brave new world.

Daniel Green

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