Director Abigail Child
Rated MA
Score 5/6

Origin of the Species explores the contemporary world of android development with a focus on human/machine relations, gender and the ethical implications of this research. The film provides an insider look into cutting-edge laboratories in Japan and the USA where scientists attempt to make robots move, speak and look human. These scientists and their discoveries are contextualised with cinematic and pop culture references to underline the mythic, comic and uncanny aspects of our aspiration to create machines that are eerily similar to ourselves.

Okay, I’m not entirely sure what exactly makes this an experimental documentary. It probably has something to do with the tropey screen boot up effect that the filmmakers used at the beginning of the documentary or the fact that it wasn’t structured like most documentaries with a presenter.
I went into this not really knowing that much about robotics and it was interesting to find out how broad a concept the idea of a robot is. A lot of what is discussed in an easily to digest way, though I am sure a lot of the discussion about humanity and what is human thought is some of the stuff that has kept us up late at night.
There was a moment that I actually got a bit of kick out of when an AI voice talked about the portrayal of robots in human media. The voice had a valid point about how the portrayal of robots isn’t positive, the need to see yourself portrayed positively in media is very important. I thought that the most fascinating thing in the documentary was seeing a quadriplegic man fitted with a neuroprosthesis and then see him use a robotic limb.