Facilitator Guide Blaxites (2019) | Josh Lyon (Director), Nehal El-Hadi (Writer) Introduction In light of recent surveillance developments — social media breaches, smart city projects, workplace

Intended as public education tools to spark discussion and extend understandings of surveillance, trust, and privacy in the digital age, each film focuses on a different aspect of big data surveillance and the tensions that manifest when the human is interpreted by the machine. [...] Questions to guide film analysis include: • What is the film about? What themes are addressed? • What is its narrative structure? How does the plot unfold? • Are there any recurring visual elements? • Who are the characters, and what roles do they play? What are they wearing, and what does this say about them? • Where is power located in the film, i.e. [...] futuristic, contemporary, historical? • What are the different locations throughout the film? • What do you think the director is trying to achieve through this film? • How did you feel throughout the film? Why? For example, the three films here are all set in urban environments in a very-near future. [...] The facilitator’s role is to guide discussion about the content of the films, and the larger social context of the implications of surveillance technologies. [...] This project has been funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC); the views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OPC.