2024 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam: Real Review

Influencing is hardly a contemporary phenomenon; think of public figures and archetypes who’ve long shaped trends. While it wasn’t always tied to product promotion, consumerism has anchored it firmly in the realm of self-indulgence—a hallmark of our age. For a practice so deeply embedded in societal evolution and now a billion-euro industry, it’s worth asking: Why hasn’t the concept of social media influencing as a profession been taken seriously?

This question isn’t central to Adele Tulli’s new documentary, Real, but it lingers in its margins. Through repeated shots of people poised in front of the camera, with us either on the other side of the screen or the room, the film exposes the absurdity of this performance. We’re acutely aware of the ease with which identities and personas are manufactured, their tenuous grip on authenticity. And yet, despite the shallow content and its susceptibility to fraud, we keep watching. More intriguingly, why do we like to be watched?

Again, Real doesn’t directly confront this. Tulli instead focuses on the less glamorous underbelly of the influencer lifestyle: the erosion of physical interaction and the creeping isolation that fosters feelings of loneliness and depression. Her editing flows gently, charting the slow descent into emotional exhaustion. She offers no moral verdict; her camera observes without judgment. There’s no condescension here, but critique seeps in as she turns her lens toward a parallel reality: VR escapism.

In this strand of Tulli’s exploration, we glide between fisheye views of urban landscapes and VR game environments, dissolving the line between physical and digital worlds. She compiles an engaging spectrum of personal narratives, distinct yet interconnected, each illustrating the rituals and collective truths of these spaces. Without heavy exposition, she nudges the conversation toward a broader concern: the decline of physical experiences in favour of digitally curated realities. One voice muses, “We’re dead people living in live bodies,” or maybe the contrary, and I cannot help but wonder: Is the virtual self a defence against the frailty of our physical existence? Is VR the antithesis of life?

Tuli doesn’t let the question settle for long. Instead, she steers us into a more abstract, visually experimental realm. Dreamlike montages overtake the narrative—quirky, layered collages that echo and distort social media aesthetics. Content that could be found on TikTok or, even more so, in an art show commenting on TikTok. It’s a jarring shift, and for a moment, the film succumbs to the rapid, consumable pace of the very culture it examines. I found myself adrift, until it clicked: Tulli is working within the system she critiques, adopting its chaotic language to make her point.

Now, we can argue whether we need yet another visually provocative but not mind-bending documentary, but Tulli has proven her honest dedication to examining digital realities with past work. And so, this one is probably part of a lifelong oeuvre.

For now, the power of ‘Real’ lies in its ability to provoke emotional and intellectual engagement. It may not shout or push boundaries, but it adds a thoughtful voice to the often-overlooked dialogue on our digital existence and its toll on the ways we know how to exist. In a conversation we habitually shy away from, that’s something.

‘Real,’ with its more fitting Italian title ‘In-Visibili,’ was well received at its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival this past August and is now making its way to the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, in the Best of Fest section, with six (already sold-out) screenings. If you’re interested in the subject or simply curious, keep an eye out; it’s certain to appear at more festivals.

Dir: Adele Tulli / Animation: Gianluca Abbate, Studio AIRA! / Editing: Adele Tulli, Ilaria Fraioli / Sound: Mattia Biadene, Sylvain Copans / Production: Pepito produzioni, Film Affair, Rai Cinema, Luce Cinecittà, Les Films d’Ici