Imagine a world where climate change crisis is no longer a concern and poverty has been eliminated around the globe. A world free of the influence of wealthy politicians and technologies designed to keep us enraged 24/7.
How much would you be willing to pay to achieve that?
Filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming ponders this question in Can I Get a Witness?, the feature follow-up to her wonderful 2016 coming-of-age tale, Window Horses. A minimalist science fiction fable set in a not-so-distant future, Witness? observes a society that has paid the ultimate price to achieve the utopian goal of eradicating all the world's ills.
In exchange for ensuring a healthy and sustainable planet, citizens have agreed to abide by several government mandates, including no cell phones, no computers and no international travel — pretty much anything that negatively impacts the environment. The most stringent rule is that no one can live past the age of 50.
Once a person reaches their expiration date, they must partake in an "end of life" (EOL) euthanasia ceremony of their choosing. Observed by two teenage "witnesses," the EOL process consists of inhaling a gas-based poison that provides the individual(s) a quick and painless death. It's through those who witness — specifically Kiah (Keira Jang), who is embarking on her first day on the job at the start of the film — that viewers are guided into this futuristic landscape.
Fleming never explains how society chose teens to be the documentarians of death, but, as Kiah notes, the only alternative to such work is mandatory military service. Paired with Daniel (Joel Oulette), whose role crosses between funeral director and grave digger, Kiah's job requires her to sketch images that capture the person's final moments. Unsure if she can handle the role, which her mother Ellie (Sandra Oh) did years earlier, Kiah must navigate her way from one EOL to the next while learning a little about humanity and history in the process.
Using the EOL process as an entry point of reflection, Fleming's film makes it clear that our current society is speeding down a dire road where everything, from the environmental impacts of machine learning to social media eroding our sense of privacy, can have costly ramifications. However, in sounding the fire alarm, Can I Get a Witness? rarely articulates why the burning building needs to be saved.
Older individuals such as Ellie clearly have memories of life during the volatile before times. They not only saw the full extent of the climate change, but also suffered great loss in the fight to save the earth. However, one generation later, all that valuable knowledge has not been passed down. Not only oblivious to certain artifacts of the past, Kiah and her fellow witnesses also lack the basics of what brought society to the EOL state in the first place.
Similar to the witnesses, Fleming keeps the audience in the dark regarding the politics and overall logistics of the world. Can I Get a Witness? displays little interest in delving into any of the meaty topics it raises. For all its talk of equality, we never get the sense that the society Fleming constructs actually is an equitable one. Even Ellie's emotional plea for her daughter to continue the important work of witnessing feels at odds with itself since she uses illegal items as a tool for teaching about the past, banned by the same system she wants Kiah to uphold.
The messy politics aside, Fleming's film provides an ultimately life-affirming tale. Can I Get a Witness? finds beauty and humanity in the individuals whom Kiah and Daniel encounter on the job, and in nature itself. In observing the latter, the film feels most alive. Fleming paints a futuristic world that very much looks like our own, but filled with plenty of eye-popping colour. Subtly using animation to further accentuate the calming landscape, and emphasizing how Kiah sees the world creatively, the visual aesthetic of Can I Get a Witness? proves to be the biggest advocate for preserving our world.
It's unfortunate that the rest of the film doesn't have the same impact as its visuals. While the film raises intriguing ideas throughout, the stakes rarely feel urgent. For a story that ask us to bear witness, it is difficult to see through its murky politics.