
Annoncering

Tonje Hessen Schei: I got the idea for DRONE when I was working on my last film, Play Again, where I follow a group of teenagers in the United States who spent most of their time gaming. I came across a story of a gamer who dropped out of high school, joined the military and very quickly became a drone pilot through the kind of skills he'd acquired gaming.So having studied the impact that gaming has on our brains – and also having looked at the relationship between the entertainment world and the military industrial complex – I was concerned about this. And when Obama ramped up the drone programme, deciding to create this battlefield with no questions asked and no transparency or accountability, we decided to make the film.You mentioned the kid who dropped out of school. Were his gaming skills really that transferrable?
Well, most young people today are gamers. Not all drone pilots are gamers, but a lot of young people are gamers, and a lot of drone pilots are quite young. The US Army has used virtual reality and video games as a recruiting tool for a long time. They've been testing out different games and strategies, and they actually created their own video game, America’s Army, which is very much a recruiting tool. You enter your user information before you begin playing the game. They use real sounds and try to create a realistic feeling of being in a battle.
Annoncering
Yeah. It was supposed to be a recruiting tool and it ended up being a very popular online video game played by around 9 million people worldwide. Gamers have skills such as multitasking, being able to relate to the user interfaces on screen and hand-to-eye coordination. In the beginning of the drone programme, the training that pilots got was minimal.The boy who inspired my story basically became an instructor for drone pilots at the age of 19 with hardly any training whatsoever. However, this has changed quite a bit. The drone pilots we follow in the film have similar stories. They were placed in the drone programme by pure coincidence, as when they ramped up the drone strikes they needed drone pilots, so they looked to recruit people from all kinds of places.Is there a similar pattern occurring outside of America?
In the film we look at how this is spreading to other countries. We've filmed in Sweden and Norway at gaming conferences where the military has been actively recruiting, targeting people down to 12 years old.What's the training like? Is it very much the same as playing a video game?
The pilots we spoke to initially thought it would be super cool, as they felt it might be like a video game. They had a background in gaming. But they got very surprised, as being a drone pilot can be incredibly boring. It involves, for example, watching a house or place for months at a time, during which there is no action whatsoever. So that’s one of the things that the US Air Force is coming to terms with; the boredom of being a drone pilot.
Annoncering
The trailer for DRONEHow did the drone pilots you spoke to feel about their line of work?
The pilots we followed during the film aren't part of current CIA operations. They did fly over Osama Bin Laden, but they weren't part of the main operation. They had strong objections to the manner in which the programme is run from a constitutional standpoint. They feel that drones are an incredibly powerful tool and that they should be used purely for surveillance; that they aren't the right way to kill somebody. That’s something we’ve heard from a lot of people during this production. This technology is being used incorrectly and there are serious questions around war crimes when it comes to how the strikes are conducted.Would you be able to explain the term "double-tap"?
Sure. It involves targeting rescuers in a second strike. It’s horrible. Through this production we've found that it’s quite common. So you basically have one drone strike, after which rescuers come in to try and help the injured in the rubble. A second strike then occurs. We've heard stories from people in which those trapped tell their rescuers to run away as a second strike is imminent. So people have stopped helping their loved ones.
Annoncering
This is just the beginning, and it's just getting started. There are countries all around the world developing this technology. It paints a terrifying future ahead, I think. And it's crucial that we now ask ourselves where we are headed.Thanks, Tonje.DRONE gets it theatrical release this autumn. Keep up to date on the official website.@TBreakwellMore stories about drones:This Is How Londoners React to a Flying Drone in 2014Drones Aren't Helping Job Creation in WalesWATCH – Yemen: A Failed State