What would happen if two artificial intelligence (AI) models searched for a vacation recommendation for you using Google Street View? In its short duration, Machine Vacations (Hadafi Raihan Karim, 2025) answers this question. Using a technology-based approach, this short documentary positions AI as a digital traveler traversing data and internet icons. When a narrative involves the use of technology and situates it as humans making decisions, then who is actually controlling whom?
Humans make decisions with their knowledge and experience in mind, but when they are transformed into AI prompts, processed by machines, and issued in the form of arbitrary decisions, then we need to reflect on the meaning of choice itself. Machine Vacations brings up things we often overlook about machines, technology, and their position in human life. On a larger scale, we could even think of them as actors who participate in, or even make decisions for, the play of human life.
Drawing on the discourse of post-cinema in this year’s Perspektif, Machine Vacations offers a non-conventional way of presenting its narrative. The camera and screen are fused together, entirely controlled by machines, processed using machines, and also displayed in machines. Now, what remains a vacation if everything can be rode and “enjoyed” by machines? (FadliAwan) (Ed/Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Machine Vacations
Hadafi Raihan Karim | 7 min | 2025 | Indonesia
Official Selection for Perspektif
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
