EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL is a story told by a machine to humans in a world that has crashed and then been re-booted from a back-up. Unfortunately, the back-up was faulty and glitches are increasingly apparent. Have human beings and machines merged? Is the whole world counterfeit? Is free will an illusion? The machine is an unreliable narrator if ever there was one. It assures us that everything is under control, but can we believe it?

Constructed during lockdown out of archive material and an AI synthesised voice, Everything Is Under Control is a wry philosophical reflection on our current predicament.

‘A powerful and disturbing story that questions the very existence of the real world…the work produces a sense of sci-fi nostalgia confounding of times, eras, utopian dystopias. It seems knowledgeable but never illustrative of recent post-humanist writing and it also speaks to this current pandemic moment where many of us may experience various degrees of loss of control, a loss of our agency to make and enact decisions’ (Melanie Manchot- Judge at Swedenborg Film Festival).

6m 25s 2020

In YOUR ORDER IS NOW COMPLETE Fortune telling meets online marketing in a short film constructed from synthesised voices and archive material.

Alternative Film Festival, Toronto 2020 (Semi-Finalist)

Internacional Signos da Noite - Lisboa 2020

4m 40s 2020

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT YOU examines 21st century issues of data control and social media using mid-20th century found footage and AI synthesised voices and characters. The anonymous algorithms of transglobal business exploit us by giving us more of what we desire.

7 mins 2021

"EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT YOU by Roland Denning is a found footage film that digs into the terrifying world of data control and undeniable power of social media. Describing it as uncompromising, real, and scary doesn’t do it any justice. As far as I’m concerned it could equally belong to both Documentary and Horror selections. Absolutely brilliant piece of filmmaking."   - Kinoskop Film Festival 2021

Selected by 14 other international film festivals.

I SLI P INTO YOUR BRAIN, YOU SLIP INTO MINE

An archive based film made for Xqui and Bettina Schroeder’s track on the album UP Beat on the Wormhole World label.

5 mins 2023 

POSSESSION

Where it all began.  A scratch video made way back in 1987.

TV commercials cut to a voodoo possession rhythm.

5 mins 1987

JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

A prototype element of the major installation piece Airship Dreams made for Bedford Creative Arts by Mike Stubbs, Dave Lynch, Rob Strachan, Roger Illingworth, Roland Denning, and Sam Weihl.

(temporary soundtrack)

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2022

5 mins 2021

ALL THE BAD THINGS

A remix of Everything We Know About You and some of the other films to a specially composed soundtrack by The Magnetic Machines (Jeremy Vass, Paul Martin & Steve Cooper).

All The Bad Things assures us nothing is our fault as long as we keeping choosing and buying the things we want. Or so the algorithms tell us...

5 mins 2022

ANOTHER AMERICAN MOVIE

In 1980 I travelled across the USA with a camera. Much of what I recorded was off the TV and radio (it was that kind of holiday).

The film is in 3 sections - Miss America, Sex Money & God and Mr. America. 

It was shot and edited on Super 8mm (hence no visual effects), audio mixed on 1/4” tape, then blown up to 16mm. This copy was digitised from VHS tape so don’t expect high quality. Or sophisticated content.

 12m 30s  1981