The film's existence is an accident. Jackson wrote the essays, then had them performed by machine actors to get them out. He added visuals to give audiences something to look at while watching, then assembled them into the documentary. But then he decided to take the essays out all together, defeating the entire point of the production.
Collects seven essays from Jackson's two books of essays in AI film theory: The New Machine Cinema (Volume 1) and Post-Scarcity Cinema (Volume 2).
When a vignette doesn't work or glitches out, the film still goes with it, often inverting the premise. Jackson calls this the True Line Cut, a film which captures its own process in real time.
After completion, Jackson tested the film without the essays and ended up liking it even more. He released both, marking three dual-release feature lengths in 2025 alongside A Very Long Carriage Ride ("One Film, Two Ways"), and My Boyfriend is a Superhero!? ("Choose Your Protagonist")
The audiovisual cinema cut is Jackson's preferred cut.
