If you are willing to spend the time on it, I think it would be good. If the documentary-maker intends to make you look foolish, it could be bad, but it doesn’t seem that way.
If you’re concerned about inferential distance, good! Then it’s just a problem of learning more so you can say the right things. If you ask the documentary-maker what sort of things she would like to ask you about, you can think about them in advance. Or if she won’t say, you can try to predict what will be asked. I don’t think you will change anybody’s mind single-handedly, but you could explain a few ideas, the ones most accessible to the ordinary person, given what they already know to be true.
As Manfred says, you should ask questions about the film. Get to know more specifics about the movie idea. Film makers don’t just grab a camera and start asking questions. They’ll have some kind of theme and method. For example, are you talking to a silent camera, or is she asking questions from behind the scene? Will the movie culminate around an event (say, the days leading up to you going to the Singularity Summit, or a cryonics convention), or will it be a day-in-the-life-of kind of thing?
I think it is a great idea to make this movie, especially if she is any good at making them and has a track record of actually completing movies. When your group is largely unknown to the public, they can easily believe bad things about you. But if they know you and see you as a neighbor, or a friend, or the nice boy/girl that helps old ladies across the street, it will be harder for them to hate you.
Do your homework, though. Know the arguments people make against life extension. Know the standard counters to them, and know how to defeat those counters. Keep track of stories or metaphors that can catch attention or draw emotions, and be on the lookout for real-life examples you can show the camera. As an example that I am just now making up, you could compare cryonics to a cocoon, and give colorful imagery about emerging from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. Then, during the filming, if the camera happens to catch a butterfly doing something interesting, they can connect it to make their documentary more compelling. In other words, if you want to look good on film, you have to help the filmer(s) and editor(s) make you look good. Maybe, as time gets closer, you could start a thread for suggestions on topics, or arguments, or quotes. Though it is important to note that you shouldn’t read from a card or otherwise have crappy delivery. If you can’t make the argument your own, it would be best not to use it.
If you are willing to spend the time on it, I think it would be good. If the documentary-maker intends to make you look foolish, it could be bad, but it doesn’t seem that way.
If you’re concerned about inferential distance, good! Then it’s just a problem of learning more so you can say the right things. If you ask the documentary-maker what sort of things she would like to ask you about, you can think about them in advance. Or if she won’t say, you can try to predict what will be asked. I don’t think you will change anybody’s mind single-handedly, but you could explain a few ideas, the ones most accessible to the ordinary person, given what they already know to be true.
As Manfred says, you should ask questions about the film. Get to know more specifics about the movie idea. Film makers don’t just grab a camera and start asking questions. They’ll have some kind of theme and method. For example, are you talking to a silent camera, or is she asking questions from behind the scene? Will the movie culminate around an event (say, the days leading up to you going to the Singularity Summit, or a cryonics convention), or will it be a day-in-the-life-of kind of thing?
I think it is a great idea to make this movie, especially if she is any good at making them and has a track record of actually completing movies. When your group is largely unknown to the public, they can easily believe bad things about you. But if they know you and see you as a neighbor, or a friend, or the nice boy/girl that helps old ladies across the street, it will be harder for them to hate you.
Do your homework, though. Know the arguments people make against life extension. Know the standard counters to them, and know how to defeat those counters. Keep track of stories or metaphors that can catch attention or draw emotions, and be on the lookout for real-life examples you can show the camera. As an example that I am just now making up, you could compare cryonics to a cocoon, and give colorful imagery about emerging from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. Then, during the filming, if the camera happens to catch a butterfly doing something interesting, they can connect it to make their documentary more compelling. In other words, if you want to look good on film, you have to help the filmer(s) and editor(s) make you look good. Maybe, as time gets closer, you could start a thread for suggestions on topics, or arguments, or quotes. Though it is important to note that you shouldn’t read from a card or otherwise have crappy delivery. If you can’t make the argument your own, it would be best not to use it.