Your Attention Please
Director: Sara Robin
Cast:Kristin Bride, Trisha Prabhu, Ilya Kneppelhout, Jordy van Bennekom, Valentijn Klok
Crew:Writer: Jack LeMay. Producer: Dan Kennedy. Executive Producers: Joni Siani, Abdulrahman Khawj, David Graves, Winston Macdonald, Ziyad Alghamdi, Elizabeth Gilcreast, Alysse Houliston; Editor: Jack LeMay; Animation: COLA Animations; Composer: Raphaël Dargent; Motion Graphics: Ryan Wehner; Sound Mix: Ridgeline Sound; Cinematography: Yahna Harris; Color: Lennon Mapes
Email:saraxrobin@gmail.com
Synopsis
A new generation of parents, teens, and reformers are fighting back against Big Tech’s agenda to define the future of human connection. From Kristin, a mother pursuing legislative reform after losing her son, to Trisha, a young programmer building technology to stop cyberbullying, the film reveals how deeply the attention economy is shaping childhood, mental health, and human connection.
As lawmakers debate the Kids Online Safety Act, Gen Z launches a global “Offline Club” movement, and a high school dares to go phone-free. What emerges is not a doomsday story, but a hopeful one: proof that the attention crisis is not inevitable and that a cultural shift is already underway.
Blending intimate human stories with insights from leading experts in tech reform and digital wellbeing, Your Attention Please asks some of the most urgent questions of our time: Can we reclaim our autonomy? Can technology be redesigned to serve humanity? And what does a healthier relationship with the digital world look like for us and our kids?
Trailer
About the director
Sara Robin is a German filmmaker based in Boston. Her work explores human connection, often through the lens of future worlds. Telling stories that blend sci-fi and documentary is her favorite thing.
Sara is the winner of the 2023 HollyShorts screenwriting contest with her sci-fi script Switch that takes a darkly humorous look at virtual relationships.
Sara’s 2020 undocumented coming-of-age short film Cranberry Nights has screened in dozens of festivals, including Holly Shorts and SCAD Savannah. Her feature adaptation Here To Stay was awarded the New England Film Fellowship at the 2021 Stowe Narrative Lab.
Sara has directed and produced commercials for clients including Nike, Jordan, and Netflix. She holds an MFA in Film Production from Boston University, for which she has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.
Filmmaker's note
It was the spring of 2019, and I was getting worried that I was losing my mind.
I could no longer read a single page in a book without interrupting myself to check my phone. My relationship was falling apart, because my eyes were glued to my phone. I was anxious and depressed. How did I get here?
Over the past two decades, Big Tech companies have silently and invisibly stolen our lives from us. Addiction-engineered technology threatens to undermine the very things that make us human. We are adrift in a state of near-constant distraction. Our mental health is in sharp decline.
On the other side of the equation is the most profitable industry we’ve ever seen, and its power is ever growing. Do we stand a chance to counter the pervasive force of the attention economy? Where are the leverage points to transform exploitative digital platforms to public squares that serve and connect us?
But there is hope. The demand for change is now louder than ever. This is our moment – in the face of the accelerating AI revolution, we sense that our very humanity is at stake. And the movement for a better tech future is already quietly underway. From the halls of Congress to our neighborhood coffee shop, it's beckoning us to join in...