The Computer Accent is a documentary following the boundary-pushing pop group Yacht as they try something terrifying and new: handing over the reins of their entire creative process to Artificial Intelligence. Working with technologists and leading AI researchers, Yacht uses cutting-edge data analysis tools, machine learning, neural networks, sci-fi instruments, and generative composition strategies to create a new kind of human-machine album—music, lyrics, artwork, videos, and all. Putting AI to the test in the name of art, Yacht is a guide through the brave new world of machine intelligence. Along the way, they will question their own roles in a future where software anticipates, generates, and synthesizes human work. (The Computer Accent, 2022)

The Computer Accent opens theatrically:

October 21 – New York (Metrograph) (With Live Performance) 

November 17- San Francisco (Roxie Theater)

November 17- Los Angeles (Laemmle Theaters)
Including Laemmle Noho, Laemmle Glendale, Laemmle Newhall, Laemmle Monica. Film screenings and performances throughout October and November in major cities including Portland, Bellingham, Austin, Minneapolis, and more.

Documentary, Running time: 83 minutes, USA

Sebastian Pardo and Riel Roch-Decter founded Memory at the start of 2014 and together have produced and distributed award-winning fiction and non-fiction films. They have collaborated with multi-hyphenate filmmakers and artists to bring their debut films to fruition, such as: Celia Rowlson-Hall’s MA, Carson Mell’s Another Evil, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Fraud, Theo Anthony’s Rat Film, Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s Crestone, and Zia Anger’s My First Film project. In 2016, Memory was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and in 2020 Memory was awarded the Cinereach Producing Award for their work in “shaping new ways of filmmaking.” Memory’s latest production, Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere won a Special Jury Prize for Non-Fiction Experimentation at Sundance 2021. The Computer Accent, which world premiered at CPH:DOX 2022, is their debut feature film as a directing team. 

Yacht began in 2002, as the design studio Young Americans Challenging High Technology, but the group is neither young nor American. For 20 years, Jona Bechtolt, Claire L. Evans, and Robert Kieswetter have shape-shifted through multiple lineups and musical styles, releasing albums internationally on DFA Records and Downtown Records. YACHT has created and sold unplayable compact discs, published a philosophical handbook, built a 62-foot video installation for Dolby, designed an eyewear collection, created a fragrance, campaigned against NSA surveillance, programmed large- scale public art activations, and has been commissioned to speak, curate, and perform by organizations including The Getty Center, Adobe, TEDx, Wired, Moma Lacma, Rhizome, Vice, and more. Their seventh album, Chain Tripping, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album.

Also featuring: 
Kenric Allado McDowell, founder of Artists in Machine Intelligence
Research scientists Douglas Eck, Jesse Engel, Adam Roberts of Google Magenta 
AI music experimentalists Dadabots
Algorithmic music pioneer Dr. David Cope
Creative technologist and poet Ross Goodwin 
AI art curators Luba Elliott and Josette Melchor
Creative Computing researcher Dr. Rebecca Fiebrink