Big_Sleep™

Part software demo, part documentary, Big_Sleep™ explores the human desire to collect and to archive—and the problems inherent in those urges. Presented as a computer screencast, the film dives into a labyrinth of layered information that spans technical process, cultural history, and personal stories. Material from the life and work of fearless newsreel cinematographer William Birch (1918–2011) is woven throughout, offering a compelling argument for the importance of access in the present and an acceptance of the fact that nothing lasts forever.

Before the screening, Evan Meaney gives a tutorial of his and Amy Szczepanski’s Big_Sleep™ Media Encoder, a software program that paradoxically preserves digital elements by putting them into permanent cold storage—archived files won’t decay but they may never be opened or viewed again. (program approx. 35 mins., video)