A dilemma many filmmakers have been faced with is: how do you capture the unique sensation of being on the internet through an older medium like film? We’ve all seen the cringe examples of boomer filmmakers and their cautionary tales about the lurking darkness of surfing the world wide web. None of that in Jane Schoenbrun’s absolutely unique We’re All Going to the World’s Fair which could only by made by someone who understands the multiplicity of niches, scenes and settings being online can take you to. 

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Channeling the internet’s creepy pasta, the lurking loneliness of 4chan and the internet performativity of obscure YouTube personalities, We're All Going to the World's Fair is a coming-of-age horror classic for the ages. Through it, Schoenbrun has emerged as a post-modern auteur that converges the distinct language of the internet with that of cinema to create her own style of film that constantly interrogates the co-existing states of reality and unreality on the internet and irl. 

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Title: We're All Going to the World's Fair | Director: Jane Schoenbrun | Year: 2021 | Runtime: 86 min

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About the programme: Which Way Is Up? is a recurring film series curated by film critic Hugo Emmerzael, offering critiques and reflections on our postmodern, late capitalist hellworld through the lens of digital film — from mainstream blockbusters to experimental cinema. 

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