Glossary of Broken Dreams is a 2018 Austrian/American documentary film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The essayistic feature film tries to present an overview of political concepts such as freedom, privacy, identity, resistance, etc.
Grenzfurthner calls his project an "ideotaining cinematic revue" about political ideas he considers important. Grenzfurthner cites frustration about the current level of political debate as a primary influence for making the film. He couldn't tolerate "ignorant and topically abusive comments on the 'Internet' anymore." So he teamed up with writer and activist Ishan Raval to "explain, re-evaluate, and sometimes sacrifice political golden calves of discourse."
The film features performances by Amber Benson, Max Grodenchik, Jason Scott Sadofsky and others.
The film was produced by art group monochrom.
Concept
Johannes Grenzfurthner, who defines himself as a 'lumpennerd' in the film's intro, functions as a storyteller and host who guides the viewer through the narrative. Glossary of Broken Dreams does not make use of classic documentary-style interviews and aesthetics. Instead, the film presents different political and philosophical concepts in the form of short films and essayistic chapters featuring fictional characters. These bizarre and exaggerated characters are performed by actors, voice performers and musicians (for example FM4's Hannes Duscher and Roland Gratzer). The film can be seen in the tradition of reflexive documentary films and performative documentary films.
In an interview with Film Threat, Grenzfurthner describes his project as follows:
It's a peculiar film for nerds of a peculiar set of interests, but at the same time it's talking about topics that are so goddamn important that more people should know about it. I guess that's why I made it. No idea if there is even a target audience for it, but one can try. There is a lot to process. And cat meme drunk masses will probably not even scratch the surface. But my idea was: better to challenge the audience than to dumb it down.
The film incorporates art and illustrations by Bonni Rambatan, Matt J. Frith, James Brothwell, Clemens Kindermann, Stevyn Prothero and Steve Reeder in a variety of different cinematic styles. The film thus works as a fast-paced collage, utilizing a singer-songwriter duo, puppet shows, LucasArts-style pixel animation, Japanese anime, live action sequences and stock footage.
Glossary of Broken Dreams can be considered a loose follow-up of Grenzfurthner's first documentary feature Traceroute, but expanding his critique of capitalist (nerd) culture.
The film was produced by Günther Friesinger and Johannes Grenzfurthner, with Michael McEnroe acting as an associate producer.
Austrian and German media personalities such as Stefanie Sargnagel, Gerald Votava, Peter Hörmanseder, Katharina Stemberger and Jolyne Schlien Schürmann make cameo appearances in the film.
Chapters
Capitalism/Market/Freedom
With Stuart Freeman (as Brian Ewok) and Conny Lee (as Madame Juju) An introduction to the basic ruleset of capitalist society and its historical formation.
Competition
With Harald Homolka List (as Hans Platzgaumer) and Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger (as Platzgaumer's Cerebral Cortex) An analysis of the pros and cons of competitive systems (like capitalism and biological evolution).
Accumulation
With Johannes Grenzfurthner (as Doktor Ullmaier) and Alexander E. Fennon (as bank clerk) This section demonstrates accumulation of capital in an ironic way by squandering 50 euros in a money exchange office.
Resistance/Activism
With Johannes Grenzfurthner (as Frau Schlammpeitzinger) and Robert Stachel (as Waiter Walter Peckinpah) A story about the ongoing shift in Western societies from a disciplinary society to a society of control and how this affects subversion in art, politics and activism.
The Media
With Amber Benson (as Pfefferkarree McCormick) and Michael J. Epstein (as DeForest Schbeibi) An analysis of the function of media in liberal societies (including freedom of speech, fake news and other concepts)
Privacy/Data
With Achmed Abdel-Salam (as Modern Subject) and Jim Libby (as Information Gaze) This section delves into the co-evolution of privacy as a social value and the bourgeois economy, and critiques the current emphasis on privacy as failing to address underlying dominations in society. It introduces the idea, explored later in the film ("The Left"), of how computation and information could be liberatory under different property relations.