01WATCH
Screen the work
Short films, unfinished experiments and hybrid live-action pieces. Good films first, no matter how they were made.
PROXY SOCIETY / CULTURE LAB / 001IN FORMATION / OPEN INVITATION
AN EXPERIMENTAL FILM CLUB
VARI.
FILM CLUB / EST. 2026
Cinema is made of shadows. What happens when the shadows can be generated?
VARI is a place to watch, make and question films created with and around artificial intelligence. For filmmakers, artists, designers, cinephiles, and the creatively skeptical.
ROOTED IN ESTONIA / CONNECTING TAIWAN, KOREA AND BEYOND
VARI / 0124 FPS
INTENT01:00
VARI / 0224 FPS
GENERATION02:00
VARI / 0324 FPS
SELECTION03:00
VARI / 0424 FPS
AUTHORSHIP04:00
01 / SHADOWESTONIA × TAIWAN × KOREA
Vari means shadow in Estonian.
In cinema, a shadow is never just an absence of light.
It can suggest a person outside the frame, a world that does not exist, or a reality just beyond what we see. AI images raise a related question: when a film is generated, whose intentions are visible in it?
One idea, different languages.
VARIESTONIAN
Shadow. The name of the club.
影TAIWANESE HOKKIEN / iánn
Image or shadow. A word woven into the language of cinema.
그림자KOREAN / geurimja
Shadow. Another way to ask what the image leaves behind.
02 / FORMATWATCH / MAKE / QUESTION
THE CLUB / NOT A SOFTWARE DEMO
Make films. Then talk about what we made.
The tools will change. The need to encounter another person's work will not. VARI is an intimate, recurring format in development, built around the film rather than the prompt.
02MAKE
Open the process
Filmmakers share what they intended, what they delegated, what failed and which decisions stayed human.
03QUESTION
Stay for the conversation
Discuss aesthetics, labor, consent, authorship and cultural difference without requiring everyone to agree about AI.
03 / FIRST EXPERIMENT90 MIN / PROPOSED
PROPOSED FIRST SESSION / NO DATE ANNOUNCED
001: Who directed this?
Three short films. Three different relationships with AI. A conversation about how much authorship can be delegated before it changes the work.
This is a proposed format, not a confirmed event. Date, venue and participants will be announced only when agreed.
Arrive
Meet the filmmakers and the audience.
Screen
Watch three short films with no tool pitches.
Unpack
Each filmmaker reveals decisions, constraints and process.
Discuss
Open critique and introductions for future collaborations.
04 / RESPONSIBILITYPROXY SOCIETY
A WORKING ETHIC / v0.1
The film matters more than the machine.
Proxy Society studies the consequences of machines acting on behalf of people. VARI brings that question into cultural production: between an idea and an image, who chooses, who is represented, and who takes responsibility?
Credit the people
Recognize the humans whose work, performances and ideas materially shaped a film.
Respect likeness and voice
Obtain meaningful consent before using someone's recognizable identity or performance.
Make delegation legible
Explain material uses of generative tools when they change how the work should be understood.
Leave room for dissent
Curiosity about AI is not a condition of belonging. Critical voices make better cinema.
WHY PROXY SOCIETY?
When AI creates for us, who is the author?
OPEN CALL / FOUNDING CIRCLE
Bring a film. Bring a question. Bring a friend.
We are looking for filmmakers, hosts, venues and curious viewers to help shape the first VARI screening. No membership count, venue or schedule is being claimed yet. The club begins with the people who want to make it real.
GET IN TOUCH
Email opens your own mail app. No mailing-list signup or event reservation is implied.