Another Body is a 2023 documentary film, directed, written, and produced by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn. It follows a college student who seeks justice after finding deepfake pornography of herself online.
It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023, where it won the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Storytelling. It was released in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Utopia and Willa, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2023, by Modern Films.
Plot
A college student seeks justice after finding deepfake pornography of herself online.
Production
As opposed to traditional documentaries where actors are used to recreate scenes, Another Body deepfaked the subjects in order to protect their identities, while preserving their emotions.[5][6] Compton said, "It was really important to us that everything we anonymized was just like it happened and we only changed the details that were identifying. We wanted to reflect the exact truth and the spirit of the story."[5]
Release
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023, where it won the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Storytelling.[7][8] It also screened at Hot Docs International Film Festival on April 28, 2023.[9][10] In August 2023, Utopia acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, to co-distribute the film with Willa.[11] In September 2023, Modern Films acquired U.K. distribution rights to the film.[12] It was released in the United States on October 20, 2023.[13] It was released in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2023.[14]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 33 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10.The website's consensus reads: "Eye-opening and infuriating in equal measure, Another Body is a timely documentary that delves into a disturbing issue of growing concern."[15]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[16]
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film 4/5 stars, writing, "Germaine Greer famously said that women have no idea how much men hate them. Her maxim has a new relevance in the light of this terrifying (and enraging) documentary about the explosion of deepfake porn targeting women".[17] Benji Wilson of The Daily Telegraph also gave it 4/5 stars, calling its use of deepfake technology to conceal its subject's identity "a neat piece of table-turning that highlighted how willingly we can be duped by video footage, as well as the dangers of putting faces to names in public. Sensibly, however, the film didn't lay it on too thick: that would have been an unnecessary gimmick, a distraction from what was already a shocking tale."[18]Owen Gleiberman of Variety called it "a groundbreaking, creepy, fascinating, and important documentary about a phenomenon that's only going to grow in significance: the deepfaking of pornography."[19]
Lisa Kennedy of The New York Times was more critical, writing, "Another Body is most persuasive when experts weigh in on the reality-upending aspects of deepfake technology and image-based sex abuse. That the documentary does this by utilizing some of that technology to protect Taylor and Julia's identities raises its own ethical questions — ones that, even with the filmmakers' compassion and transparency, Another Body doesn't quite resolve."[20]
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