Petr Salaba

Czech Republic

Petr Salaba

director, producer

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Quasi-interactive dystopic sci-fi documentary meta comedy about the thrills of behavioral marketing, technological determinism and wannabe alive machines that might likely end all human life as we know it.
Working in the style of a documentary essay, in one part the film considers the problem of humans being surrounded by robustly automated online social networks. A calming female voice in its terapeutic tone introduces us into the logics of data mining, behavioral marketing and the value system of machines. The narrator also asks the audience to ready their smart phone cameras in order to take pictures during the screening of the film to capture the projected graphs and diagrams. All that on top of apocalyptic visions of burning Hamburg during the G20 Summit that was also heavily photographed by smartphone cameras. Other parts of the film consider the future role of terapeutic chatbots in psychological self-realization and the human understanding of non-synthetic nature.

Malaria 1983

Malaria 1983 is an immersive documentary video game where the player takes the role of a tropical parasitologist on a dangerous mission in the post genocide Cambodia. The interactive story is closely based on the autobiographical book "To Heal, To Survive" (Léčit a přežít) and personal diaries of Dr. Michal Giboda. The player is hurled into a twisted Cold War world of cruel political schemes, post-colonial cynicism and swarms of malaria infected mosquitoes. The task is to face the upcoming challenges through reason and scientific method. You have limited resources, mental energy and you will have to compromise. Will you help the infected patients at the local field hospital where all the former doctors have been executed or will you prioritize your long-term research? Despite being a part of historical events and political shifts, you never get to see the grand picture of things. What you understand with confidence is the internal perspective, the microcosmos of blood and other bodily fluids is what you focus on every day. Your closest companions are petri dish, centrifuge and an old microscope. However, without having the right political connections and profile, your research will hardly ever get published, or at least not under your name and credit.
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