Virtual Voice

In this digital satire, I ask a basic question: what has social distancing done to our humanity? Since the coronavirus pandemic, we have lived largely on screen—those with access, I mean. In an age of information, we are only too aware of deepening divisions between the over- and under-privileged. We know too much. We say too much. We say we care. We like, we repost, we share. But we protest through posturing. Through verbal irony, Suzi doll—my online avatar—exposes everyday contradictions in what we tell ourselves to pretend that everything is alright in a world that is falling apart. The film was made during a Doha Film Institute workshop, under the guidance of award-winning Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh. It was entirely shot on a mobile phone and through Zoom.