An artistic animated film that you just instantly love, but you cannot always say why

A personal review of the new film about electrohypersensitivity (EHS), “Remembering Nearfield.” Review written by Olle Johansson, retired professor - but still active - from the Karolinska Institute and the Royal Institute of Technology, both in Stockholm, Sweden.

"Remembering Nearfield" is an animated film about electromagnetic harm produced by Sean A. Carney and is perfectly narrated by Corriëlle van Vuuren and Kate Kheel. It opens and closes with beautifully resonant music written and performed by Kate Kheel. This film is in totality such a special work.

"Remembering Nearfield" strikes a deep chord in my soul. For an academic scientist like myself, it is always very impressive to see skilled movie makers, artists, and performers, summarize in less than 10 minutes a staggering 45 years of research!

The film is about a very successful woman who, over time, develops the functional impairment electrohypersensitivity (EHS). The invisible electrosmog, the term used to describe a formidable 'soup' of different electromagnetic fields and signals within our modern society, hits her hard one day, and her life turns upside-down, sending her from being a successful business entrepreneur and loving, caring wife into a life outside of our normal societal boundaries. In a profound way, Carney's film becomes a mirror, showing us how little it takes to remove the democratic polish, to expose beneath the thin veneer our lack of solidarity. Time and again, an inconvenient disability has so oWen exposed how people are so quick to label someone "crazy" when in reality there is a debilitating condition that simply scares or threatens others’ composure, for they aren’t experiencing the same disrup5ons in their own lives.

Being highly techno-prone, the woman in the film doesn't – at first – connect her adverse health symptoms with the surrounding environment, which is more and more - over the years - filling up with artificial electromagnetic fields. She even tells us that she was disappointed that the technical development of cell phones wasn't faster than it was. However, after some time, she starts to suspect that the ambient electromagnetic energies from cell phone systems, WiFi, tablets, laptops, high-frequency light bulbs, wireless smart meters, baby alarms, DECT phones, powerlines, smart cities, the emergent infrastructure of the Internet of Things and the Internet of Bodies, and much more, may be the actual culprit causing her severe symptoms and seriously ailing health.

After many years, she realizes the possible connection between her functional impairment and the electromagnetic radiation used by society for communication, entertainment, transportation, and ubiquitous electrical sources.

Sean A. Carney perceptively conveys her predicaments and life limitations in a very elegant way, using compelling animation and sound effects that aptly describe the isolated and eerie life no one wants to live.

The film ends with a mind-bogglingly prescient quote from the famous French theorist, urbanist and aesthetic philosopher Paul Virilio (1932-2018) "When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution... Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress." (From "Politics of the Very Worst", New York: Semiotext(e), 1999, p. 89.)

Never forget these words. And, please, watch Sean A. Carney's film – it is a must.