Techno-Films

The first highly publicized interactive Brazilian film (mostly through Twitter and Blogger), Filipe Gontijo's "A Gruta" ("The Cavern"), was shown at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival last week. Although a DVD is in development, so far the interactivity is collective. In different scenes a green light appears on the screen and the audience votes on which path it wants the character to take. The path that gets more votes is projected. Some people have gone to multiple screenings to try to see different ends, middles and beginnings. "A Gruta" has 13 different outcomes and its running time can be between 5 and 40 minutes. But in what is perhaps a sign of audience predictability, some have complained that they ended up watching the same film every time. Could we envision a higher education class in which the professor "moves on" or covers certain chapters and subjects depending on how her students vote? If the learning is online and personalized, there is no need to drop a vote in the bucket and hope the outcome goes your way.