Reality Frictions explores the intersection of fact and fiction on the screens of Hollywood, highlighting moments when images, people or events from the real world intrude on the cinematic one.

In an age when generative AI and synthetic imaging provoke anxieties about our ability to tell the difference between real and fake, Reality Frictions demonstrates that spectators have long traversed the boundaries of believability, developing nuanced skills for navigating the pleasures and paradoxes that emerge when reality and fiction collide.

Richly illustrated with clips from more than 100 movies and TV shows, Reality Frictions is an entertaining, but also serious, investigation of media’s role in revealing truth and making history.

Set against the historical backdrop of the current fascination with machine learning and generative AI, Reality Frictions also touches on the phenomena of deepfake videos, “latent histories” and image synthesis that reveal the reciprocal relationship of human and machine vision.

Reality Frictions takes a self-reflexive look at the strategies used by filmmakers to strengthen — or sometime challenge - their own truth claims. From background appearances by real people in the stories of their own lives to historical reenactments, Reality Frictions will forever change your perception of films that are “based on a true story.”