Future Shock

“Our modern technology has achieved a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams. But this technology has exacted a pretty heavy price. We live in an age of anxiety, a time of stress. And with all our sophistication we are in fact, the victims of our own technological strength. We are the victims of shock … of future shock.” No, this isn’t a quote from a Huffington Post column on the Facebookization of modern communication. Nor is it pulled from an academic treatise on the phenomenologies of post-industrial existence. This statement was made by Orson Welles in the 1972 futurist documentary Future Shock, and, unlike some of the more dated elements of 1970s educational films, Future Shock remains shockingly current in verbalizing the concerns and anxieties that come along with rapid societal and technological change. (Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive)

Orson Welles

Narrator

James McGaugh

Himself

Alvin Toffler

Himself

• Alexander GrasshoffDirector
• Ken RosenWriter
• Charles W. FriesExecutive Producer
• Vilis LapenieksDirector of Photography
• Gil MelléOriginal Music Composer
• David NewhouseEditor

Release date

February 22, 1972

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

43m

Genres

Documentary