Virtual Voice

This is a satirical review of our times. Suzi doll is an ego-warrior. My online avatar, marching to the algorithms of social media. She is lit by temporary outrage. A trending indignation. A passion that is fashion. A politics of the popular. Her activism is abstract. Her help is hypothetical. We know many girls like Suzi, and many times we are her: vacuous virtual voices, echoing injustices. 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 is my online avatar. She 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.