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>>Tiffany Shlain: I'm really happy to be here on this gorgeous New York day.I was just,
like, ah, I love New York.Um, anyways, we open on um, Friday at the Angelica Film Center
we'll be there for a week.And we'll talk more about that later, we have all these speakers
lined up, but.I'm really excited to share the film with you.And see a lot of laptops
out.That was also the case at Google on the Bay area.Which as a film maker, well when
you see film you'll know the irony of all that.[Laughter] But, um, no, no, it's cool,
because it is cool.It's ok.Um, [laughs] but the film is both a very personal film for
me as well as a kind of global look at what all this connectedness means.And, um, you
know, it's been really exci-- Probably my most exciting spreenings, screenings have
been at the tech companies because you all are creating these tools and you have so much
influence on how we're using them and what is it mean? What are the implications of all
the things that you are creating? So, uh and there's a couple, um, see if you notice the
very, the Google shot.'Cause, you know I founded the Webby Awards.And, uh, there might be a
shot of the founders with capes and rollerblades winning their first Webby Award.There just
might be.Anyways, um, so, anyways it's an eight minute film and then afterwards we'll
have a good, um, discussion afterwards, so enjoy.
>>Female Interviewer: Hello! This is Tiffany Shlain as you met in the beginning of the
film. >>Tiffany: You now know more about me than
you ever thought you would know. >>Female Interviewer: Exactly.I was going
to start off with a bio but I figured that everyone already knows everything about your
personal and professional life.So I don't think we need to go there.
>>Tiffany: Yeah, you don't need to go over my life, yeah.
>>Female Interviewer: I was maybe going to share some, um, feedback that I've read about
your film.In particular, from ah, Al Gore.Ah, he said "Tiffany Shlain demonstrates with
lyrical simplicity our interdependence on one another and the interconnectedness of
humanity with all life on earth.Throughout she presents and honors with deep wisdom of
her late father, Leonard Shlain reminding us of the deepest connections that breathe
meaning into life."
And then I found another quote which I'm sorry I don't know the author, um, I couldn't find
that.It said "A love letter to humanity and our shared potential." So that's quite an
accomplishment to write a love letter to humanity.So congratulations on your film.
>>Tiffany: Thank you.Thank you so much. Thank you.
>>Female Interviewer: It's excellent.Um, and maybe we could start off talking about that.If
you could just tell us a little bit about how the film started off as a documentary
and morphed into an autoblog-ography. >>Tiffany: Yeah, yeah, this is my eighth film
and I have never made a personal film.I don't know if I ever will again.But, um, I started
out, the film took four years to make.And, um, I was just focusing at, we called it the
idea portion of the movie.It's all about, just about the ideas I was interested, obviously
you know my background.I was interested in why are we creating all these technologies?
What's our desire to connect? And I wanted to place it in historical context and kind
of give this overview.And in year two I sat in the editing room and got this sinking feeling
that no film maker wants to feel as they're watching their rough cut.I had a complete
two hour movie.And I watched it and I thought "I'm not connecting to the material." That
it was about connectedness and I had no emotional connectedness to what I was talking about.The
tubes are connecting us.Um, and, so and my father had just been diagnosed and I was really
thinking a lot about connection.And then it kind of hit me that in order to understand
connectedness of humanity I needed to understand what I was feeling about connectedness in
my family.That that's where all of this stems from, is our sense of feeling connected.And
we're all social creatures and that that I needed to kind of explore my own sense of
connectedness.So then, it was a very difficult process.I'd brought in a story editor, I have
a writing team and we spent two years.First we looked at at the story arc in the idea
film then we made a story arc in my personal life.Which was really weird.They're like "Well
what happened in the second act, like, was there something worse that happened?" And
I was like--.And then we had to weave them together but the exciting moments in the editing
room and in the writing room were when the personal and the global clicked together.And
I realized that they were, you know, like, growth, for growth's sake is cancer or these
moments when what was happening to me personally were speaking to something globally.Whether
it was, you know, I think our society is so exciting right now and something's also died
in our society.And something is about to be born with the internet and, so there was all
these kind of parallels, um.And, of course, I started weaving in my dad's work, which
has been so influential to me.So, it was, you know, and our big goal with this film,
was to really get a conversation started.So what does it mean to be connected? What's
the good? What's the bad? What's the hope of it? And we made this whole, um, discussion
kit that goes with the movie.And a lot of educators are using this right now.So it has
a curriculum, and then there's conversation cards and a book.And we just really want people
to get, to be talking.We're all moving so quickly, as you all know here at Google.We're
just moving a million miles an hour.And what does it all mean? Like we have an opportunity
to kind of explore what are the implications of our actions and what we're building and
how it's affecting the world.And what's the potent- 'cause I get very excited, especially
with a lot of the stuff you're doing about the collaborative tools.And I should tell
you that I can't wait till we can get video online, but my team is kind of all over and
we wrote the script completely on Google docs.Like, we'd all be on at the same time writing.And,
um, in different places, in real time, it was fabulous.And, um, but the collaborative
tools are where I get most excited about the potential of what that could mean.
>>Female Interviewer: Yeah. >>Tiffany: For this world.
>>Female Interviewer: And speaking of the toolkit that you have, I think it's for teachers
and things like that, so they can continue the discussion in class.Um, you know this
generation of kids, they, all they know is being connected.Their birth was probably announced
immediately on Facebook and, you know, tweeted about and
>>Tiffany: Ours was, that was our birth announcement. >>Female Interviewer: Exactly. So what do
you think it's like for those children, I mean, you could, when you were looking at
connectedness you could go back to a time when you remembered not being connected technology.I
mean, I think that kids--. >>Tiffany: I mean it's a great question as
I have a two year old and an eight year old and their whole way of processing information
is different but the good news is my daughter still loves to read.And we do technology Shabbats
every Saturday.Very serious.And since we finished the film, so Friday night, sundown, we light
the candles and we turn off all screens for 24 hours which has been pretty life changing
for me, for me personally, 'cause I was feeling too much.I was slee-- in my sleep I was emailing
and texting.Like in my sleep. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah.
>>Tiffany: And my mind was just too much.So, um, we started doing that and my kids love
it.And everyone can try it.I know it sounds weird, but it's kind of wonderful to remember
what it's like to just be not be able to act on every single thought you have.And what's
the one day of the week you want to feel long is Saturday?
>>Female Interviewer: Mm-hm >>Tiffany: And time totally slows down when
you are unplugged.So I found it's been seven months now and it's really rebalanced me.But
going back to our children, I'm very excited.I mean I feel like, I think we've finally created
a work environment that mirrors our stream of consciousness, 'cause we don't think in
a linear way.Our thoughts, you're listening to me, I'm saying things making you think
of, like, 20 different things.And that's the way we really thing.And you know I used to
watch my father do brain surgery, that's very focused.Eight hours.Would not leave the focus
and just asked for tools.And now we have an environment where every thought we have can
be acted on.Every idea, every link, every, and I think that's exciting.So, I know people
who are so worried about the distraction but I kind of feel like, you know, when the written
word was invented, everyone worried that oral tradition would be, we'd lose our memory.Well
we kind of lost a bit of our memory but we gained a lot of knowledge with books.When
I was growing up television was going to destroy our brains.I watched a lot of crappy TV.It
has not destroyed our brains. >>Female Interviewer: Mm-hm
>>Tiffany: And, um, I just think that they're gonna process and explore this world in a
totally new way. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, and I feel like
technology, maybe, um, you know, it started out where, it kind of came to us and sort
of forced its way into our life.And we use it now and feel like it's shifting where it's
changing to adapt to how we need to use it. >>Tiffany: Yeah, and that's what a lot of
you are doing here.That's exactly right. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, so that's exciting.
>>Tiffany: And, um, I want, well, we can open it up, but I want to tell you the reason we
do these preview screenings, like we're an independent documentary.You have to see it,
I've opened in L.A. next to Brad Pitt's Moneyball.You can imagine.
[interviewer chuckles] >>Tiffany: They have a lot of marketing money.I
was like 'Oh my God'.There's like twenty billboards in L.A.And like our but, you know, our film
has done really well through social networking.And, um, it's been very exciting.So if you liked
the movie, we open at the Angelica on Friday.We've all these exciting speakers.Every night, kind
of approaching connectedness from their perspectives.So we have Anna Deavere Smith, we have designer
Todd Oldham, um, we have MeetUp founder Scott Heiferman, film producer Ted Hope.We have
all these great people.And every night our goal is to really start a dialog from a different
perspective.I mean, obviously if you saw any of the film, you could approach this subject
from, you're an environmentalist, if you're a technologist, if you're a woman, if, you
know, it's just we just want to crack open the dialog.And we hope that you will either
come opening weekend, it's all about opening weekend for independent docs.
(Interviewer chuckles) >>Tiffany: Bring your friends.And, or just
spread the word, we'd be super, super grateful. >>Female Interviewer: And what else was on
the little cards that you were handing out? >>Tiffany: Um, the card was just kind of,
you guys all know this, like spoon feeding, well can I just tell you I can't wait till
you guys have a Google plus for films? 'Cause you don't have that yet and we've been having
a lot of fun with having extending the Q and A outside of the theater online.So we've been
having in our Facebook page but I'm dying for you guys to have the, uh, ability on Google
plus to carry on the dialog and the hangouts for films.Um, but on the cards, it kind of
says how you can post things, tweet, Google plus, whatever you can to get it out to your
networks that we're going to be in the theater for a week in New York.
>>Female Interviewer: Okay.Great.Um, and then before we open up to questions do you want
to show the short film? >>Tiffany: Do you guys want, ok, so I made
this film it was very much with YouTube, so I thought it would be fun to show it.Do you
guys want to see a little four minute crowd source film we made? It's called the Declaration
of Interdependence.It's, uh, Moby did the music.It's, we'd, it just we made it about
five weeks ago.We posted something on the internet.We wrote a script, a one minute script
and everyone participated and, um, we showed it at interdependence day in New York right
after 9/11, it premiered.
[ Music playing]
>>Male #1: When in the course of human events
>>Male #2: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #3: In the course of human events
>>Female #1: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #4: [speaking French]
>>Male #5: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #2: [speaking Spanish]
>>Male #6: To recognize the fundamental qualities
>>Male #7: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #3: That connects us
>>Female #4: That connects us
>>Female #5: That connects us
>>Male #8: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #9: The truths we hold
>>Female #6: To be self-evident
>>Female #7: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #8: That all humans are
>>Male #10: created equal
>>Female #9: And all are connected
>>Male #11: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #12: That we share the pursuit of life
>>Female #10: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #13: Liberty
>>Male #14: [speaking Hebrew] >>Female #11: Happiness
>>Male #15: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #12: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #13: Water.
>>Female #14: Agua.
>>Female #15: Shelter
>>Female #16: Refugio.
>>Crowd: Safety
>>Female #17: Seguridad.
>>Male #16: Education
>>Male #17: Pendidikan
>>Female #18: Justice
>>Male #18: And hopes for a better future
>>Group of women: That our collective knowledge
>>Group #1: Economy Technology
And environment >>Group #2: Are fundamentally interdependent
>>Male #19: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #20: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #21: That what will propel us forward
>>Female #19: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #22: Is our curiosity
>>Female #20: Curiosite.
>>Female #21: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #23: Our ability to forgive.
>>Male #24: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #25: Our ability to appreciate >> Female #22: Our courage
>>Male #26: Our courage.
>>Female #23 [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #27: And our desire to connect [echoes]
[bell tingles] >>Female #24: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #28: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #25: That these things we share
>>Female #26: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #29: To our fullest common potential
>>Male #30: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #27: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #31: We should never take ourselves too seriously
>>Female #28: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #29: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #32: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #33: So that we can learn from the past
>>Male #34: Understand our place in the world
>>Female #30: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #35: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #31: Use our collective knowledge
>>Group #3: Use our collective knowledge
>>Male #36: To create a better future
>>Male #37: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #38: So perhaps it's time
>>Female #32: [speaking foreign language]
>>Male #39: That we as a species
>>Female #32: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #33: As a species >>Male #40: [wheezing laughter] Love to laugh
>>Male #41: [speaking foreign language]
>>Female #34: Love to laugh.
>>Male #42: [speaking French]
>>Female #35: Ask questions >>Female #36:And connect
>>Male #43: Do something radical And true
For centuries
>>Female #37: we have declared >>Male #44: Independence
>>Male #45: Perhaps it's now time >>Male #46: That we
>>Male #47: As humans >>Male #48: Declare our interdependence
>>Female #36: Interdependence >>Male #49: Interdependence
>>Male #50: [speaking foreign language] [various people continue saying "Interdependence"]
>>Whole group: Interdependence. [ music playing ]
[dramatic music with female vocals]
[marker goes "boing" on map]
[music with female vocals]
>>Tiffany: So that film kind of picked up where connected left off and it's gonna be
a series of six short films or eight that kind of deal with interdependence, but it
was really fun to, you know, we posted that and it's already been translated into fifty
languages, um.And, you know, again it's the collaborative tools that you all are creating,
as a film maker are super exciting. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah
>>Tiffany: We should open it up. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, um, so there are
two microphones, here, so if anyone has any questions please, uh, make your way to the
mic.Thanks. >>Male Audience Member #1: Hi, uh my first
question is where do we buy the tickets for Friday?
[Tiffany and Interviewer laugh]
>>Tiffany: I don't even know him!
[Laughter]
>>Male Audience Member #1: You do, but online.
[laughter] >>Tiffany: Oh, awesome, uh, cool [laughs]
[Laughter] >>Tiffany: So tickets were supposed to go
on sale today, like everyone's running and the Angelica's like not selling them till
tomorrow, um, so, if you go to connec-- I was gonna say it, I'm not gonna say your Facebook
page, go to connectedthefilm.com and, um, tickets are gonna go on sale tomorrow.We hope
you'll bring friends.It's really fun to watch with a group.And anytime during opening weekend,
the premier happens Friday night, but if you have the inclination to bring people, any
screening during Friday, Saturday or Sunday's really helpful.Thank you.
>>Male Audience Member #1: Sure.And, uh, my other question, or my, is, uh, in the film
I was fundamentally optimistic, uh, and, uh, you showed a lot of footage from, like, the
Civil Rights and, uh, JFK and the space program and stuff like that which was great.But, uh,
in the last ten years, especially, there's been a lot of other stuff going on, uh, you
know, the film sort of had a-- >>Tiffany: It leaves on an optimistic note
>>Male Audience Member #1: Yeah, and, uh, you looked at the arc of history as you sort
of sighted as progressive.You, uh- >>Tiffany: I do believe, I mean, you know,
that's been the most interesting thing is that the screenings tell how pessimistic a
lot of people are.And I guess, if you just watch the news it would look like a pretty
horrible world that we live in.It's like it highlights the worst of humanity and I think
that you could and I think that it's also important that we highlight some of the potential
of humanity.So I did put in the movie you know this connectedness that's led to the
atomic bomb and all this news, but we didn't blow ourselves up and we could've.And I ultimately
believe in the human species.I believe we're moving the needle forward.The fact that I'm
a woman director up here right now means that women's rights happened that meant so many
things had to happen for me to be sitting here.I'm a Jew, my family almost died, you
know, we're evolving.Gay rights, I mean, I just feel, like we're moving the needle forward.So,
if you believe that fundamentally and you say and we have this tool that's gonna to
have the potential in our lifetimes to connect every person on the planet.What could that
world look like? 'Cause you have to at least imagine that in order for it to happen.So
I guess I hear you that I am not Pollyanna in my sense of like "Oh the internet is going
to save the world." There's been a couple articles that I was like 'Ok'.So, people are
going to save where we go.The internet is an extension of the human spirit.There's this
great quote it's like "Technology is neither good nor bad nor neutral." It's us.It's just
us, like, telescope you couldn't see far enough and our brains couldn't grow big enough so
we connect.So I just feel like we can we have agency and we can direct it and I hope that
not only we talk about it but we kind of direct it in a good way.So I do leave on an optimistic
note, 'cause I am actually optimistic.I know it's rare these days but.There's a great book
called the Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, has anyone read that.And he looks at throughout
history and civilization that innovation has always happened in cities because the more
people are next to each other from different perspectives and that's usually when big inventions
happened all throughout civilization.So we have the internet now, that the potential
is that we have this framework for all these people to bump up against each other from
different perspectives and I think that could hopefully solve some of our biggest problems
if we use it that way. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, seems as though
it has to evolve.I mean it had to have this sort of big explosion before everyone figures
out where the pieces land.How to use it to the best--
>>Tiffany: Right and I think we're-- You know I used to be a smoker, not proud of it.But
I used to smoke a lot and I think, you know, I quit like twelve years ago or fourteen years
ago.Sometimes I think like God, I can't believe I smoked first thing in the morning or on
the plane.Remember when everyone was smoking on the plane, like that's so gross.But I wonder
if we're going to look back on the way we use social media way too much and be like,
I can't believe that person texted at a funeral, like that is so rude! Which I was at a funeral
last week and saw someone texting and, but I just feel like how we swung way, 'cause
we're just so intoxicated with all this stuff and it swung so far in this way of there's
no boundaries there's no like, no that's not cool to use it then.And I wonder about that.
>>Female Interviewer: Yeah, where the pieces will fall.
>>Tiffany: Well the other thing about smoking--Did anyone smoke in here, used to be a smoker?
No one? Oh my God. [Chuckling]
>>Tiffany: Ok I'm not going to use my other -- none of you have ever smoked? Wow! See,
we have evolved.Ok do you remember when you'd be smoking and while you were smoking you
would think I want another cigarette while the cigarette was in your mouth.That's the
way social media is to me.Like I'm doing something and I'm wanting to do something else.It's
that same kind of addictive thing.I cannot believe only two people in this room smoked.Well
that's, we've evolved.We learned that was bad for us.Everyone used to smoke.Doctors
used to smoke. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah and you mentioned
that too, even cell phones, like when we're kind of the guinea pigs.Right?
>>Tiffany: Yeah, I do think about that.I really do use my earbuds, 'cause I think 'that much
radiation against the brain' I don't think that's good.And you know, the reason I put
that scene in, you know when my daughter, they were, my dad was so against her getting
an MRI.Because, you know, radiation it's like unclear on what that is doing.It's a lot of
uses of it and I'm actually, I'm not paranoid about it, but I definitely use an earbud and
don't let my baby hold the phone to her head. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, which is very
hard to do, because every baby wants to play with your cell phone.
>>Tiffany: I know, she asked me, she's like "Can I have some, can I have some phone?"
like she was asking for a lollipop.Can I have some phone? I was like, oh my God, she was
like, wanted it so badly. [Laughs]
>>Female Interviewer: The other thing in your films, uh, you use a lot of archived footage,
which is wonderful, it's also very logical, because it's economical, because you don't
have to go out and shoot that footage.What I was thinking in this film was how interesting
it is that you're showing old, 'cause it's showing how connected we are. You can make,
you know, make these assumptions, make these connections between old footage and how interesting.
>>Tiffany: To me, that's, you know, it actually came from at Berkley, UC Berkley where I went
to school.There was no film production there.So I actually had to make movies by recutting
old movies and then it kind of informed my whole film making style.And now with the internet
I used to have to actually search for shots and now I'm just like a kid in a candy store.I'm
on the web, I'm like, archival shot from the '20s and like 20 images come up.So it's super
fun for me and but I also feel like I wanna ground, I try to ground people in history,
'cause that's another thing that we're so not thinking about, the past.
>>Female Interviewer: Yeah and I think that's another wonderful thing about your film is
that it you give such a history and you're teaching while then coming back and making
connections.Not to overuse the word with uh, you know, your personal life and things.And
like I think your father had said, you know, if you wanna go look for connections in the
past-- >>Tiffany: That was always the way he approached
anything he was really, he always, I mean even when he started working on Leonardo da
Vinci I was like why are you, why are you writing about Leo-- I really actually didn't
get it at first, like, why are so fascinated with Leonardo da Vinci? 'Cause there's been
so many books about Leonardo da Vinci it was like it was like he was writing a new book
that hadn't been written.But he did have a new, like he really thought Leonardo da Vinci
was like offering the future of our, a glimpse into the future of our species.And so he had
to understand what made Leonardo tick.I mean it's interesting.It is interesting way to
approach problems or the world. >>Female Interviewer: Yeah, yeah.Please.
>>Male Audience Member #2: Hi there. >>Female Interviewer: Hi
>>Male Audience Member #2: I'm very excited for the future with the way technology's moving
so fast and I'm sure many other people are here as well.At the same time I'm very concerned
about how it's just as you've mentioned it spiraled out of control.I really enjoyed your
film because you've discussed the mindfulness of or just being mindful about how technology,
how we use it, things like that.Now a common problem I run into with friends, is their
all, like, in technology and stuff and I'm trying to tell them we have to be, we have
to watch what we're doing.Things like that, or that things become so well established
now.And if you contradict that you end up sounding crazy.And I often do, so how do you,
how do you pass along this message? >>Tiffany: Yeah, I mean, we're, the good news
I can tell you is we've had premiers all over the country and people are ready to talk about
it.You know I feel like I'm bringing up, even the way I start the movie and we've all done
that right? Right? [Laughs] No, you're like with someone and you go check your email in
the bathroom 'cause you're jonesing for an email hit.And I a lot of people said it's
like you called me out, you know, 'cause I'm talking about the thing that we're all doing
and um, people are ready to talk about it.It's a very active dialog in the feeders and online
about it afterwards 'cause I feel like we're at that point where we need to talk about
it.And when I mention the technology Shabbats people look at me like I'm an alien.They're
like, you unplug every week? And they're like, well I do that on vacation once a year.I'm
like, no it's about doing every week is really what it's about, for me.It's like a muscle
you need to exercise, you're mind back into being in the garden and reading and sitting
with yourself, which is beautiful.And different and profound also.So, I guess I feel like
I'm trying to, I agree with you.I'm extremely excited and I also think we need to be mindful
and conscious as humans, but I believe we can do that.
>>Male Audience Member #2: Thanks. >>Tiffany: Yeah, thank you.
>>Female Interviewer: Then use technology in order to have that time when you're in
the garden.Because you don't have to be at your desk, you can answer the email, done,
ok put it away, now go take a walk. >>Tiffany: Yeah, I mean being a woman is so,
you know, great to be a woman today and I can pick up my kids from school and have all
this freedom with technology to work in a different way, but we also, you know, we are
distracted, from what's right, the people right in front of us.
>>Female Interviewer: Yeah >>Tiffany: On that note I have to go to a--
>>Female Interviewer: Yeah, you have another event.Thank you very much, thank you for coming
and sharing your film. >>Tiffany: Thank you so much, you're a great
audience.Thank you and thank you for the great questions. It was great.
[applause]