Conceiving Ada
Germany, United States
1997
85 Min
Color
2.35:1
English
Synopsis
In this award-winning film which was the first to use “virtual sets,” Academy-Award ® winner Tilda Swinton embodies Lady Ada Lovelace, daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron, and the mathematics genius who developed what became the world’s first computer language 100 years before computers were invented. Ada’s story is channeled through Emmy (Francesca Faridany), a contemporary computer scientist researching artificial life. By using her own DNA genetic code, Emmy collapses time and is able to communicate directly with Ada. Realizing how parallel their lives are, she embarks on the task of “saving” Ada. In the process, the borders between past and present, virtual and real, blur and Ada and Emmy both recognize the implications their place in time.
This film also features John Perry Barlow, Bruce Sterling and Timothy Leary with music by The Residents. –Microcinema
Director
Lynn Hershman-Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson (b. in 1941 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American artist and filmmaker. She was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She is Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Over the last three decades, artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has been internationally acclaimed for her pioneering use of new technologies and her investigations of issues that are now recognized as key to the working of our society: identity in a time of consumerism, privacy in an era of surveillance, interfacing of humans and machines, and the relationship between real and virtual worlds.
Her films include Teknolust, Conceiving Ada, Strange Culture, all three with Tilda Swinton. –Wikipedia
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ramosbarajas
3Oct11
A feminist movie that explores the challenges women had to, and still must overcome in order to engage in scientific research. It sets up an interesting premise à la Julie & Julia. Here however the two women interact as the Julie counterpart writes a computer program to contact Ada in the past. The low budget hinders the film a bit, especially with the dated computer effects, but in a way it makes the film feel whole
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