'The Technological Sublime' Drags AI Down to Earth for TCCF

Director Jannes Callens is bringing artificial intelligence down from the cloud and into the quarry. His documentary "The Technological Sublime" heads to the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, where the team will hunt for distributors, sales agents and Asian audiences.

The film follows AI's physical supply chain across four continents. It starts at quartz mines in the Appalachians, moves through Taiwan's chip plants, Chile's lithium fields and the cables under the sea, and ends with the click-workers of Kenya. The through-line is simple: what does the technology cost people and the planet?

"I have a fascination with subjects that are hard to visualize," Callens says. "People tend to talk about AI as if it were something very abstract and invisible, but after doing some research it became clear to me that there is a very tangible ecosystem behind the myth of 'green' AI."

An online image search for AI, he notes, mostly returns humanlike robots. The absence of pictures of everything underneath pushed him toward the subject.

What kind of film is it, exactly?

Not a screed, by the director's own account. "This film is first and foremost a work of art that gives me the opportunity to tackle an interesting subject in a truly audiovisual way," Callens says. "I hope to bring some nuance into the AI debate, showing the essence of technological miracles without being blind for the material, ecological and human costs."

Callens' previous documentary, "Dor (Longing)," followed a young man returning to Romania to become a shepherd. It won Best Belgian Film at the Brussels Independent Film Festival and was selected for Visions du Réel (the Swiss festival for documentary cinema). He is now also creating images for a stage play about humanity's failure to face climate change.

Who is backing it?

Delegate producer Steven Dhoedt has form with tech subjects. His early documentary "Inside the Metaverse" (2010) examined the buzz around virtual worlds more than a decade before Facebook rebranded as Meta.

"In a similar way, there's plenty of hype around AI these days, but for a lot of people the technology remains an abstraction," Dhoedt says. Callens' pitch grabbed him immediately. "Instead of taking the sensational route, the film takes a more timeless, more grounded approach and I strongly believe that this is the type of film about AI we need these days."

The production stack is pan-continental:

• Visualantics and Cobra Films — Brussels
• Tag Film — Paris
• Reel Asia Pictures — Taipei

Belgian broadcaster VRT has boarded the project, and talks are underway with other European broadcasters. The first scenes are already shot; the team is waiting to lock down the rest of the financing while seeking further investors and partners.

Why Taiwan?

"TCCF gives us a real chance to bring this film to audiences in Asia," Dhoedt says. Working with James Chia-Hao Hsu of Reel Asia Pictures, the team hopes to open conversations with distributors and sales agents at the festival — a fitting venue, given that Taiwan's chip plants appear in the film itself.

The Taiwan Creative Content Fest, organized by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), runs Nov. 6–9 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.