Films

From executive producers Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff, I Hope This Helps! is a humorous, genre-bending hybrid documentary that invites viewers to ponder the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.

In the film, investigative journalist Daniel Freed enlists the help of Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, to collaborate on a documentary…about AI. Appearing in the blue, furry form it requested, Bard helps Freed explore the benefits and risks of this world-changing innovation. Bard offers Freed suggestions for constructing and funding his anti-AI army, including unconventional ideas such as baking and selling “We Will Not Be Replaced” cakes.

By turns satirical, silly, and deadly serious, this innovative take on AI’s place within the entertainment industry (and beyond) is as thought-provoking as it is timely.

Discussion with Director Daniel Freed, Executive Producer Matthew Modine, and Art Director Katherine St.Paul Hill, moderated by David Phillips (The Contending).

Closed Captions are available for this screening and assistive devices are available upon request. The on stage presentations will include ASL interpretation. For more information or to request an accommodation, visit VAFF Accessibility.

DateSat, Nov 2, 2024
Time12:30 PM
VenueViolet Crown 3
Guests
Daniel Freed,
Daniel Freed
Director, I Hope This Helps!
2024 Films
I Hope This Helps!
Film: I Hope This Helps!

Daniel Freed worked for 12 years as a senior producer and writer for CNBC’s white-collar crime documentary series, American Greed. He is the co-author of Call Me Commander: A Former Intelligence Officer and the Journalists Who Uncovered His Scheme to Fleece America. The nonfiction book details an audacious charity fraud orchestrated by a UVA graduate — while he was also wanted for questioning by the FBI espionage investigation team.

Also active in nonfiction television development, Freed crafted a pitch that was produced for Amazon Prime as This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s company, Gary Sanchez Productions. His work has been aired or published by PBS, Current TV, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He has multiple long-form true-crime articles in development with producers and production companies in the U.S. and Europe.
Matthew Modine,
Matthew Modine
Actor, Executive Producer - Birdy and I Hope This Helps!
2024 Films
Birdy – 40th Anniversary Screening
I Hope This Helps!
Films: Birdy and I Hope This Helps!

Matthew Modine is a Golden Globe-winning actor, director, and producer whose iconic portrayals in Alan Parker’s Birdy, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and Netflix’s global phenomenon Stranger Things as Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner have cemented Matthew’s legacy in the entertainment industry. Recently, he starred in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the cycling drama Hard Miles, and the upcoming film The Martini Shot.

He is the co-founder of Cinco Dedos Peliculas (CDP), an acclaimed film and new media production company that has been developing award-winning narrative films, documentaries, animation projects, mobile apps, and environmental initiatives for 15 years. Some of their projects include Accidental Truth about the UAP Phenomenon, Signe Baumane’s animated feature My Love Affair with Marriage, and Downwind, an expose chronicling the fallout from decades of nuclear bomb testing on American soil.

Modine can next be seen in the Netflix original event series, Zero Day, with Robert De Niro, and the Amazon original series, The Better Sister, with Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel.

Photo credit: Noël Sutherland
Katherine St.Paul Hill
Katherine St.Paul Hill
Art Director, I Hope This Helps!
2024 Films
I Hope This Helps!
Film: I Hope This Helps!

After studying sculpture in school, Katherine designed and sculpted cakes at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore and was featured on several seasons of the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes . She later worked as a professional nail artist in both New York and LA. Now based in New Orleans, Katherine creates costumes, clothing, jewelry and fine art. She is the Co-creative Director and lead artist at the Krewe of Red Beans’ museum called Beanlandia, designing and building up the museum and making large-scale resined artworks composed of thousands of beans and recycled Mardi Gras beads. She continues to create in multiple mediums, now including the plush puppet named Asher.

Film Info

Director: Daniel Freed
Runtime: 51 minutes
Genre: Documentaries
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Language: English
Accessibility:
- ASL-English Interpretation
- Closed Captions
- Q&A