DEGREES OF FREEDOM

A new edition of the ROS Film Festival begins, marked by the return to normality in social and cultural scenarios. After 18 months of pandemic and restrictions, many of us have wondered, during these months, about the meaning of the word freedom and our right to exercise it, in different spheres.

“It’s quite an experience to live in fear… isn’t it? That’s what it means to be a slave”.

Roy Batty made it very clear in the final scene of Blade Runner: “It’s quite an experience to live in fear… isn’t it? That’s what it means to be a slave.” According to the 4-year-old Replicant, exactly, being a slave, the opposite of being free, depends on a sensation, a feeling, a drive: fear. The more fear we feel, the less free we are. On the other hand, let’s remember that the word “Robot” in its original Czech conception means slave.

In this festival, beyond entertainment, we want to reflect on the relationship between technology and human beings and, ultimately, on how we project our fears and concerns as a species onto a technological “object” created by ourselves.

The degrees of freedom in a robot refer to the capacity of movement that these artificial beings can have in a three-dimensional space.

Degrees of freedom in a robot, refer to the capacity of movement that these artificial beings can have in a three-dimensional space. Curiously, during the pandemic, our movements have been limited to four walls for months, and from here we want to reflect, through the metaphor with the robots, how our freedom, our fear, has been affected during all this time.

The facts have spoken for themselves during these months, now surely it is time to reflect, to think: could we have done better? Is the strategy of fear the right one to shape a mature society? What would have happened if, as a mature society, we had been left to follow the health recommendations at our own free will? Is the police abuse during the pandemic, which has increased by more than 30%, the path towards citizen security or towards a society that is a little more enslaved?

Through the short films of the ROS Film Festival and after the previous edition “Dystopian Futures”, we want to place the spectator in this situation: fear or security? What are the degrees of freedom in which we have moved and in which we are going to move in the future? Questions that we will address through science fiction at ROS Film Festival from 5 to 21 November.

Ricardo Domínguez
Director of ROS Film Festival