TikTok, Boom. Director's Cut Director's Cut

WATCH TRAILER

TikTok, Boom.

Director's Cut

Directed by Shalini Kantayya

US | 2021 | 87 minutes | Color | DVD | English | Order No. W221299 |

License:

Format:

PRICE:

Host a screening

Watch on DocuSeek

SYNOPSIS

Dissecting one of the most influential platforms of the contemporary social media landscape, TIKTOK, BOOM., directed by CODED BIAS filmmaker Shalini Kantayya, examines the algorithmic, socio-political, economic, and cultural influences and impact of the history-making app. This rigorous exploration balances a genuine interest in the TikTok community and its innovative mechanics with a healthy skepticism around the security issues, global political challenges, and racial biases behind the platform. A cast of Gen Z subjects, helmed by influencer Feroza Aziz, remains at its center, making this one of the most needed and empathetic films exploring what it means to be a digital native.

With this new work, Kantayya, a Sundance Fellow, continues her engagement in the space where technology meets, amplifies, and opposes our humanity. Her incisive, current look at the power and complexity of tech continues to advance a conversation that is bettered by her careful stewardship.

The Director's Cut is the version of the film that is broadcasting on Independent Lens and contains special edits made by Kantayya.

The filmmaker is available for Q&As.

PRESS

"A thoughtful conversation starter."

The Hollywood Reporter

"An impressive scope with its journalism."

Nick Allen rogerebert.com

"An intriguing exploration."

CBS News

"Engrossing…a cliffhanger"

The Wrap

“A great little historical film that reminds us where this generational new outlet came from."

IndieWire

“Sprightly, informative...there are more levels to the TikTok phenomenon than there are to almost any other blockbuster app."

Variety

“...the documentary shows that there’s so much more going on behind the scenes that most of its users aren’t even aware of."

Golden Globe Awards

"Raises many pressing concerns about the power of TikTok and its lack of accountability"

That Shelf

"The film is a story of personal branding versus personal privacy."

POV Magazine

“The documentary, TIKTOK, BOOM. is here to remind you of the good and the bad."

Geek Vibes Nation

"Incisive look at the power and complexities of technology"

Black Film

"Shalini Kantayya's is the kind of film that should be mandatory viewing for the rising numbers of kids who dream of being social media influences one day..."

Slash Film

"At once fascinating and frightening…insightfully explores the social media platform."

Flickering Myth

“Fascinating and insightful"

Splash Magazine

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

Sundance Film Festival
Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival
SXSW
San Francisco International Film Festival
CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival)

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Shalini Kantayya

Two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker Shalini Kantayya directs fiction and nonfiction films that artfully marry the future of science with the future of story. Her latest film, TikTok, Boom, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was official selection at SXSW. Her critically-acclaimed 2020 Sundance film, Coded Bias, was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens and globally on Netflix in April 2021. The film has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice, and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary. The film won Best Director at the Social Impact Media Awards, and the Visionary Filmmaker Award at GlobeDocs. Shalini’s debut feature, Catching the Sun, released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Shalini directed for National Geographic television series Breakthrough, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, and episodes for NOVA and YouTube Originals. Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and Concordia Studios Artist Fellow.

Credits

Director/Producer: Shalini Kantayya

Producers: Ross M. Dinerstein, Shalini Kantayya, Danni Mynard

Executive Producers: Ross Girard, Rebecca Evans, Travis Collins, Randall Lane, Michael Cho, Mimi Rode, Tim Lee, William Rosenfeld, Robert Kapp, David Tomlin

DP: Steve Acevedo

Editor: Seth Anderson

Composer: Katya Mihailova

Visual Effects: Zachary Ludescher

Co-Producers: Colin Frederik, Mona Karrenbach, Roland Kassis, Damen Schlanger

Associate Producer: Erin Sands

Additional Photography: Shane Sigler

Additional Editors: Ian Witenber, Cheree Dillon

Subject Areas

Coded Bias

When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms.

Learn more

Geek Girls

Nerdy women - the "hidden half" of fan culture - open up about their lives in the world of conventions, video games, and other rife-with-misogyny pop culture touchstones.

Learn more

Great Unsung Women of Computing: The Computers, The Coders and The Future Makers

In the United States, women are vastly underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) fields, holding under 25% of STEM jobs and a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees. Great Unsung Women of Computing is a series of three remarkable documentary films that show how women revolutionized the computing and Internet technology we use today, inspiring female students to believe that programming careers lie within their grasp. The Computers features the extraordinary story of the ENIAC Programmers, six young women who programmed the world’s first modern, programmable computer, ENIAC, as part of a secret WWII project. They programmed ENIAC without programming language (for none existed), and harnessed its power to perform advanced military calculations at lighting speeds. However, when the ENIAC was unveiled in 1946, the Programmers were never introduced and they became invisible. This stunning documentary features rare footage and never-before-seen interviews with the ENIAC Programmers. 70 years later, this is their story. The Coders tells the story of two extraordinary women, Sarah Allen and Pavni Diwanji whose technologies revolutionized the Internet: Sarah co-invented Flash, the first multimedia platform supporting video, graphics, games and animation for the internet, while Pavni invented the Java servlet to allow web applications to respond quickly to requests from users everywhere. In The Future Makers, Andrea Colaço, a young MIT PhD, shares her dream of a world in which we interact with our smart devices using natural hand gestures, not static keyboards or touchpads. She invented 3D “gestural recognition technology” and co-founded 3dim to develop and market it. In 2013, 3dim won MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Prize and launched Andrea towards her dream of innovation and changing the world.

Learn more

Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower

LIVING THINKERS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE IVORY TOWER examines the intersection of race, class and gender for Black women professors and administrators working in U.S. colleges and universities today. Through their diverse narratives, from girlhood to the present, Black women from different disciplines share experiences that have shaped them, including segregated schooling as children, and the trials, disappointments and triumphs encountered in Academia. Though more than 100 years have passed since the doors to higher education opened for Black women, their numbers as faculty members are woefully low and for many still, the image of Black women as intellectuals is incomprehensible. And while overtly expressed racism, sexism and discrimination have declined, their presence is often still often unacknowledged. Through frank and sometimes humorous conversations, this documentary interrogates notions of education for girls and women and the stereotypes and traditions that affect the status of Black women both in and out of the Academy. A perfect companion film for any classroom discussion on the intersection of racism, sexism and/or feminism.

Learn more

The Gender Chip Project

Essential viewing for students, educators, counselors, policy makers and parents, THE GENDER CHIP PROJECT is being hailed as an important resource for addressing the disparity of representation of women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Although women comprise the majority of undergraduates in America, only 20 percent are earning degrees in engineering and computer science. With statistics like these—and controversies such as the firestorm created when a prominent university president suggested women lack innate abilities in math and science—it’s clear that the road to success in the high-stakes STEM professions is not an easy one for young women. THE GENDER CHIP PROJECT illustrates this challenge as it follows five extraordinary women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University. Meeting regularly throughout their four years of school, they create a community to share their experiences and struggles as women stepping into traditionally male domains, and find support in dialog with their female professors. Now chaptered for easier use, the DVD shows how these extraordinary students are finding their own way to navigate and succeed in these male-dominated areas of study.

Learn more

I Am a Girl

There is a group of people in the world today who are more persecuted than anyone else, but they are not political or religious activists. They are girls. Being born a girl means you are more likely to be subjected to violence, disease, poverty and disadvantage than any other group on Earth. In I AM A GIRL, we meet 14-year-old Kimsey from Cambodia, forced to sell her virginity at 12; Aziza from Afghanistan, who will be shot if she goes to school; Breani, a teen living in a ghetto of NYC and dreaming of stardom; Katie from Australia, who is recovering from a suicide attempt; Habiba from Cameroon, betrothed to a man 20 years her senior; and Manu from Papua New Guinea, about to become a mother at 14 following her first sexual encounter. As they come of age in the way their culture dictates, we see remarkable heart-warming stories of resilience, bravery and humor. Nominated for four Australian Academy Awards including Best Documentary and Best Director, I AM A GIRL is an inspirational feature length documentary that paints a clear picture of the reality of what it means to be a girl in the 21st century. I AM A GIRL provides practical and ready-to-use resources for educators to address human rights and social justice issues affecting girls in the classroom. Girl Be Heard Education Guides for I AM A GIRL are three units of 25 total lesson plans aligned with US Common Core Curriculum (grades 9-12), to provide a practical and ready-to-use resource for teachers to address human rights and social justice issues affecting girls around the world. Girl Be Heard Education Guides for I AM A GIRL help teachers bring important human rights topics and a future of gender equality to the classroom. For more information, go to: http://girlbeheard.org/i-am-a-girl-education-guides.

Learn more

OUR CATALOG

TikTok, Boom.

Director's Cut

SYNOPSIS

PRESS

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Subject Areas

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Coded Bias

Geek Girls

Great Unsung Women of Computing: The Computers, The Coders and The Future Makers

Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower

The Gender Chip Project

I Am a Girl