The Marie Skłodowska-Curie project LIBRA, supported by the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory, the Swedish Red Cross, ForumCiv, Digital Futures and the Centre for Anthropocene History proudly announce The Material Cloud Film Festival, a three-night film festival exploring the often unseen material realities behind artificial intelligence, including labour conditions, extractive supply chains, and power concentration.
As AI expands into nearly every sector of society, it is frequently framed as clean, efficient and intangible. Yet behind its sleek interfaces lie vast infrastructures, hidden workforces and resource-intensive systems that raise urgent ethical and political questions. Through film screenings and expert-led discussions, the festival invites audiences to ask: What lies behind the cloud?
Each evening features a carefully selected film exploring a different dimension of AI. Topics range from human labour and bias in training data to mineral extraction, contamination, and the environmental and emotional costs of sustaining algorithmic systems. All events are open to the public and free of charge.
Time: Wednesday 18 March 2026, 17.30 – 20.00
Location: ForumCiv Alsnögatan 7, 116 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Language: English
Participating: Charlie Wilson, Somya Joshi
Seats limited, please register here
The second event of the film festival will screen “Donde los niños no sueñan” (Italy, 20′) and “Paradise Island” (Italy, 8′) by Stefano Sbrulli.
Donde los niños no sueñan
Lourdes and her family live a few meters from a huge lead mine that contaminates the environment in which they live, and which causes serious pathologies to her children.
Paradise Island
Through images from the field, environmental observations and local context, the documentary offers a close look at how large-scale resource extraction is reshaping ecosystems and everyday life in Sulawesi.
Followed by a conversation with
- Charlie Wilson, Oxford University
- Somya Joshi, Stockholm Environment Institute
- Gustave Lester, KTH
Moderated by Francesca Larosa, KTH
The screening will be followed by a mingle.
The event is co-sponsored by Digital Futures
