McLuhan's wake

Formally innovative documentary about the ideas and life of Marshall McLuhan, one of the most enigmatic and provocative thinkers about technology and culture in the twentieth century. Fascinated by the role technology played in transforming our lives, McLuhan predicted, with stunning accuracy, the impact the digital age would have on our social, spiritual, economic and ideological selves. He called for a science of media ecology to escape the powerful effects of the media. He also pioneered the idea of inter-disciplinary and media studies within the university, heading the newly opened Center for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto in 1967. McLuhan publicised his theories with deliberately provocative appearances on TV, a strategy that bought him celebrity but lessened his credibility in the eyes of his academic colleges. When he died in 1980 - the same year CNN began and IBM created the first personal computer - he had largely lost his audience. Grounded in McLuhan’s last scholarly work, ‘The Laws of Media’, the film translates the four laws he proposed into an illuminating and revealing text, haunted by archival footage and the voice of McLuhan himself. Blending all forms of media, including animation and special effects, ‘McLuhan’s Wake’ is a visually dazzling and poetic film, with narration by renowned performance artist Laurie Anderson, and commentary by scholars Eric McLuhan, Neil Postman, Lewis Lapham and journalist Patrick Watson. An educator’s resource guide is available at http://www.nfb.ca/mcluhanswake/film.html