SOUK is partnering with the makers of a new horror film, Snapshot. But in this take on Jack the Ripper’s London, misinformation is the monster.
Snapshot is the new independent horror film from debut director, Joseph Archer. The film, set in Victorian London, focuses on the misinformation spreading in the streets and scandal sheets around a series of brutal murders in Whitechapel. Dubbed a ‘mischievous black-comic horror in flickering monochrome’ by the Guardian, the film has a serious underlying theme. Snapshot draws a haunting parallel between the unregulated newspapers of the Victorian era, and the online misinformation of today
The film premiered in competition at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August and is now headed to Frightfest and the London Film Festival. In Snapshot, Tamworth, the fictional inventor of the first moving image camera (voiced by Tom Stourton), documents the work of an all-ladies ghost hunting society in 1888 London as they attempt to prove the infamous ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders are being committed by a malevolent spirit. The first of its kind, the film is shot in a unique sepia pinhole camera style, with an editing style mimicking the endless scroll of contemporary social media news feeds.
To celebrate this innovative take on addressing the very contemporary harms of misinformation, we’ve developed our own Victorian style media literacy toolkit for distribution to Snapshot’s audiences. A Respectable Citizen’s Guide to the Preservation of Truth in the Modern Age is free to download here.
On our partnership, our Founder and CEO, Matteo Bergamini, said:
‘At Shout Out UK, we’ve been saying for years that misinformation is terrifying. We’re delighted then, to partner with Silicon Gothic on Snapshot, a truly innovative and timely film. The film makers’ cutting edge creativity vividly dramatises the battle for truth which can take place when unregulated information meets fear on the streets. At a time when the present day parallels are all around us, we welcome the opportunity to share our media literacy resources with Snapshot’s audiences.’
Film makers Joseph Archer and Cathy Wippell commented:
“Our partnership with Shout Out UK truly reflects our mission as a production company; to ‘monstify’ modern issues within the genre space in order to push socio-political action. Misinformation has never been as great a threat as it is now; Snapshot illustrates the grotesque shadow this monster is casting over our society, and our partnership with Shout Out UK will be instrumental in our push to inspire audiences to take action against that monster and reclaim our right to the truth.”
A Respectable Citizen’s Guide to the Preservation of Truth in the Modern Age
