Disinformation in all it forms remains a threat to nearly every person on the planet. Yet some weaponized the technology against certain groups. In general, women already have a difficult time online, especially in a post-Gamergate world. Yet deep fake revenge porn might be the most destructive material being created today. Documentarians Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn follow one such case in Another Body, which debuted at SXSW 2023. The resulting film chills to the bone, providing a personal story to understand the phenomenon.
Taylor gets ready to apply to graduate school and follow in the footsteps of her family. She’s a science student and engineer looking to enter a male-dominated field. Yet one day, a friend alerts her that pornographic material featuring her is online. She discovers deep fakes, videos that utilize synthetic media to put a person’s face over another person’s body. As she digs deeper, she finds the darker and more upsetting side of the internet in full force.
Compton & Hamlyn approach Another Body with empathy and care. This feeling of genuine sorrow over Taylor’s circumstances shines through in every second. No person deserves this to happen to them, especially a woman trying who tried to establish boundaries with her male friends. You feel the anguish of Taylor’s emotional state as she struggles to comprehend why she became a target.
On the filmmaking front, Another Body also shows how deep fake technology serves a positive purpose. The face we know as Taylor is not Taylor. To ensure her privacy stays intact, the visual effects team deep fakes her face for the documentary. In a sad yet unsurprising trend, deep fakers increase their attacks against those who call them out. Taylor receives a cloak of anomimity while still telling the gritty details of her story. Other girls who Taylor reaches out to throughout the film also opt to hide their faces. This phenomenon creates cascading effects on its audience.
The visual effects create a flawless likeness for Taylor. If the users never confirmed they were deep faked, you would never know. This is also scary, as it speaks to how effective the technology is at achieving realism. The accessibility of deep fake technology to amateur users only further raises the alarm. There’s a real danger in this technology, and as the film progresses, Taylor’s case becomes one of many.
It’s hard to imagine many films will be as relevant as Another Body at this moment. Taylor lends her story to stand in for thousands of women suffering from the creation of similar circumstances. As technology continues to advance, disinformation training also needs to advance. This should not destroy a person, but as others continually hurt others without a regard for the consequences, we are only going to see this problem worsen.
