When engineering student Taylor Klein receives a message from a friend advising her to open a link, she becomes alarmed. Finally she clicks, and finds herself staring back at herself. Taylor’s face was stolen to create a deepfake video, which was posted on a pornography site along with her personal information.
The documentary “Another Body” takes us into this funky new world, in which images of a person – often a woman – can be lifted from social media and digitally reproduced.
When Taylor contacted the police to report what she believed was a crime, she was unable to proceed further. Only five states currently have laws criminalizing deepfake pornography without consent.
The film, directed by Sophie Compton and Ruben Hamlin, follows Taylor as she attempts to track down the person responsible. Along the way, she discovers two other people whose faces have also been used for deepfake porn: Julia, a woman she recognizes from college, and Gibby, an ASMR actor and streamer.
The twist is that Taylor and Julia’s names are pseudonyms and they are portrayed by “face veil” actors (this technique was revealed in the documentary “Welcome to Chechnya”).
“The Other Body” is most persuasive when experts consider the real-world aspects of deepfake technology and image-based sexual exploitation. The documentary does this by using technology to protect Taylor and Julia’s identities, which raises its own ethical questions—ones that, even with the filmmakers’ compassion and transparency, “Another Body” doesn’t fully resolve. it occurs.
another body
Not evaluated. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. in Theaters.
