The Great Vacancy is a non-binary film, part essay film and part speculative fiction, exploring images of exhaustion and exhaustion through images. Starting from a streaming practice that sees individuals film themselves sleeping to monetize their downtime, the film offers a critical and poetic reflection on the contemporary entanglements between fatigue, (self-)exploitation, and online screen practices. The Great Vacancy follows the investigation of Seyrig, a character from the near-future, through various digital archives, texts, and other relics from the early 21st century, and wonders: what is our contemporary fatigue about, and what role do the images we consume and produce incessantly play in our collective inability to slow down our pace of life? What will remain of these audiovisual streams in a few generations? What perspective will our descendants hold on the perpetual state of stimulation and generalized exhaustion we currently live in?
Chloé Galibert-Laîné