The tech bros don’t want you to see these movies

Our Executive Director, Clara Maguire, introduces the Citizens Film Club, our new project bringing independent documentaries out of the algorithm and into communities.

Our first screening, part of a new season in partnership with Doc Society, is just one week away - plus, we’re offering our community 50% off tickets (code below!).

I’ve spent years thinking about who gets to shape the technologies that are shaping our lives. But there’s another question I keep coming back to. How do we get more people into the conversation - not just as readers, but how can we meet, think together and decide what should happen next?

We know films can help open that space because we’ve already tested it. With Asif Kapadia’s 2073, we worked on an impact campaign and facilitated screenings from Palestine to Australia and across the UK. We brought people together to open conversations about democracy, surveillance and concentrated power. The film travelled because people carried it there. We saw that a film can do more than describe a crisis. It can help people recognise it, talk about it and decide they want to act together. Now we want to take that idea further.

In the last few months, that ambition has become more urgent than ever. When Alex Gibney tried to get people to watch his new film about Elon Musk - a film about one of the most powerful men in the world - the systems designed to help it find an audience were captured.

The distributor submitted the trailer as a paid ad, but YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X initially refused to run it, classifying it as political content. Those decisions were reversed (except, unsurprisingly, on X).

For a while, the film’s reach was at the mercy of systems we don’t control: advertising rules, recommendation algorithms and a handful of companies with enormous influence over what reaches our screens.

So let’s get them seen

The filmmakers we’re working with are trusting us with community screening licences to take their work beyond the usual venues and into local spaces across the country.

That’s the mission at the heart of Film Club, and it kicks off in exactly one week’s time, Wednesday 18 November, with Ghost in the Machine.

The documentary asks who built AI and who it serves, exposing the racism, misogyny and eugenics buried in the technology’s history. It challenges the idea that AI is neutral or inevitable.

We’ll be screening the film at Rich Mix in London, with free drinks from 5.30pm, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with director Valerie Veatch, Alix Dunn and Estelle Uba.

For me, that room is part of the work. We want people to watch together, share perspectives and turn those conversations into action – in communities, public debate and, through our campaigns, all the way to Parliament.

We’ve spent years investigating power and campaigning to hold it to account. Now we’re creating more ways for people to get involved.

A ticket gets you into the room, but it also helps us build the next one. So come along. Bring someone. Share the event. And if you know a group or venue that should host a screening, help us reach them.

More films are coming, and we’re building a community to carry these conversations further.

As a thank you for supporting the Citizens, we’re offering you 50% off tickets to our first Film Club screening.

Book your discounted ticket here – the discount should apply automatically, or simply enter HALF at checkout.

Can’t make it to London? You can rent Ghost in the Machine for just a few quid through Kinema (you’ll need to create a free account), then join the livestreamed panel discussion and audience Q&A, completely free. The film is also available for rent in the UK on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

Hope to see you there (or at a future screening!),
Clara

Interested in hosting your own screening or watch-along? We’d love to hear from you! Email our Community Events Manager at finn@the-citizens.com and we’ll help you get started.

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