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A FUTUREMENTARY DIRECTED BY DAMON GAMEAU A FUTURES FILM REVIEW FOR HUMAN FUTURES MAGAZINE by David Lindsay-Wright (PhD) FOREWARD Welcome to this new series looking at films with futures themes, that is, ‘futures films’. To analyse this compilation of curated futures films I apply a framework I call IoFAM – or Image of the Future Analysis Model - which although it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, I have found this framework very effective in understanding what the images of the future that surround and bombard us are saying or trying to tell us about our collective futures. As a framework for analyzing and also designing images of the future, IoFAM builds on Lasswell’s pioneering Communication Formula of 1948 which asks:
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Who, says what, to whom, in what channels, with what effects? This Futures Studies (FS) customized model expands on Lasswell by re-questioning with FSspecific questions that now ask: who – are the media authors and what positions do they maintain vis-à-vis the futures theme they have produced, says what - about the future and what is NOT said; to whom – the audiences they are appealing to; how – that is, what genres, communication styles or strategies do they use to tell the story and are they conscious or vicarious? In what channels – which now includes the proliferating social media