Molly Vs The Machines

Directed by Marc Silver

Interview with Andy Jones, Impact Producer 

On 01/03/2026, 'Molly Vs The Machines' is going to be screened in various cinemas. This is a documentary film that ignites conversation so much deeper than children's safety on social media. Don't miss it, and make sure to take someone with you. This is a film that you must watch WITH someone, because then you can talk about it after. Kindle this flame and get the conversation going.

"Ultimately, we made Molly Vs THE MACHINES to help spark the huge shift needed in how we as individuals and communities see and understand Big Tech." - Marc Silver

Trigger warning: This film discusses the delicate topic of suicide, and it could be upsetting / triggering. Molly's story is important, and it needs to be heard.

To briefly outline what the documentary is about, the synopsis states: From a teenager’s suburban bedroom to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, Molly Vs THE MACHINES is the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death, and his fightback against how the most powerful corporations of the modern age operate.

Now, as Big Tech's global domination escalates with AI, Molly's story reminds us that the real power is still in our hands.

This is something new and different for 'Tab In The City', we usually talk about theatre. If there is one thing that theatre and this documentary film have in common, it is the impact it has on their audience and the importance of the message. This interview is with Andy Jones, who is the impact producer for the film, and he tells us a bit about the documentary. This is one for parents, older children, basically everyone who uses social media. It informs and sparks a conversation that needs to be had. Molly's story is a delicate one. 

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Here is what Andy Jones shared with us:

Q: Tell us about Molly Vs The Machines?

A: The film is a documentary by Marc Silver. Co-written with Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff. It has two narratives: the story of Molly Russell, her dad, Ian and his fight for justice. Then also, in parallel, that story is set against the development of the business model of social media employed by the tech bros of Silicon Valley.

Q: What do you want audiences to take away from the film?

A: Well, I think the film is designed in such a way that different audiences take different things. What I would hope is that everyone who sees the film understands that what happened to Molly was: A, not Molly's fault, and B, not just an accident. This is a design choice. Based on the fact that there are algorithms which will amplify content that users are interested in. By watching this film, I hope that everybody understands what is going on behind their infinite scrolling. How their data is being used, and how these decisions that affect all our lives have been taken thousands of miles away. 

Q: Who is your target audience?

A: The reviews just started coming out in the papers. The Times' review says, "Every parent needs to watch this film." I think people at different stages of life will take different things from it. Obviously, it's not a film for young kids. There's also an irony in the sense that Molly was seeing this content when she was only 13/14 years old, and the BBFC have given it a 15 rating. Then I think, when it comes to parents, you know, they are at different points in their journey, aren't they? If you're a parent of a 0 to 5 year old, you may be watch it in a different way to if you're a parent of a 5 to 11 year old at primary school, or if you're a parent of a child who's a similar age to Molly, if your kids are 13/14, you're then watching it in a different way. My kids are 19 and 21 now, and I watch it with a little bit of relief that they've come through their teenage years without being subjected to the same extent to that content, but it is a film for everyone, because everybody needs to understand the economic logic that is driving social media. It is addictive by design, which is then all about selling ads. Those clicks we make are all about our eyeballs and our attention, so that advertisers can reach audiences. 

Q: How do you think the film is tailored to reach these different ranges of audiences? What sets it apart?

A: My role is the impact producer for the film, so I wasn't involved in the making of it. My role is in helping to get the film out there and getting the film to have an impact on audiences. But what I can tell you is that Marc and Shoshana Zuboff, whose book 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' inspires the film. They were trying to find a way to take the ideas that went into a 700-page book and bring them alive for audiences. Shoshana's book has been described by various people as one of the most important books of the first quarter of the 21st century. And, without wanting to try and distil Shoshana's work into just a sound bite, because you can't possibly, it's taking some very complex and academic thinking that has taken decades for Shoshana to arrive at, and trying to translate that into a story. I think that's where Marc, as a director, comes in, because by sort of transposing the growth and the development of social media onto the story of what happened to Molly Russell, you then humanise this business model, this economic logic, and that's the power of film. That's what you can do with a story that's got a beginning and a middle and an end.

Q: Tell us about your role as Impact Producer. What work have you done to get the film out there?

A: What you very often do, as an impact producer, is to think, who are the organisations working in this field? Who else can use the film to either inform their existing audience or to reach new audiences? Molly's family set up a foundation, after she died, the Molly Rose Foundation. For them, it's a really important way for them to be able to explain the work that they do, which is all about a kind of top-down regulation and legislation and bottom-up education. There's a natural fit with the themes of the film and what they do. 

But then there are also loads of other organisations. We've been organising private screenings with a whole range of organisations across civil society to see what their response to the film is. What we found is that whether it is organisations like Movember and Equimundo, who talk about the dangers of the algorithms on either men's mental health or on masculinity. Or whether that's people who work in the global health sector, who see the impact of the algorithms spreading misinformation, which leads to a declining rate in vaccination take-up around the world. Or whether that's about any one of the myriad number of organisations that work in digital safety, either in the UK or across Europe. People are really drawn to this film because it kind of shows what everybody knows, but does it in such a way that there's a human story at the heart and a 30-year history underlying it, which just comes across in one 83-minute chunk, and then you go, 'oh yeah, that's what's going on'.

 Q: What have you learned from being a part of the journey of Molly Vs The Machines, as an Impact Producer? 

A: I think I've learned that when you get a film like this, which is so powerful and emotional, it can lead to change in lots of different ways. After watching this film, people will think differently about their own social media use, the social media use of their kids and about what the government should be doing. I think I've learned that when you have a powerful film, it's not just about starting the conversation, it's about changing the parameters of that conversation. So, we hear loads of stuff at the moment in the media about whether social media should be banned or not banned. That's not what the film's about. The film elevates the discussion way beyond whether you ban or don't ban, towards the question of how do we, as a society, whether that's in the UK or around the world, counteract the power that these massive companies now have over our lives, including all the other things that they use or abuse your data for.

Q: How has the documentary film impacted you as a parent? What did it make you feel? What kind of reactions have you had from other parents? 

A: There's a scene in the film where Ian, Molly's dad, says: "When you say goodnight to your kid, and you close the door, and they’re safely in their bedroom. And you turn the lights out, and you’ve made sure the front door of your house is locked. You’ve taken steps as you do every night without thinking to protect them. And what I wasn’t sufficiently aware of, and I don’t think many parents are, is that if that child has a smartphone with them, there’s a window which allows them to connect to the outside world. And decisions about what was suitable and not suitable for a 13/14 year old to see were being made remotely in Silicon Valley, almost experimentally.”

I think that line has really resonated with other dads, especially those I've spoken to. I know other parents who say straight away, after watching the film at previews, that they want to go and check what apps their kids have or haven't got. But I think, beyond thinking about what our kids are doing, it's also made me question my own use of social media and my own modelling of how much time I'm spending on my phone. Because it isn't just kids. We're all addicted. You go out on a Saturday or Friday night to a pub or restaurant anywhere in town. You see, everyone's on their phones. It's not just the kids. And I’m definitely not the best role model, for my kids or anyone else’s!

Q: How does 'Molly Vs The Machines' differ and stand out from other documentary films? 

A: What's remarkable about this film is that Marc, as a director of the film, is a pretty unique talent. And then two amazing women who have produced the film, Kat Mansoor and Natalie Humphreys. 

This is Marc's fourth feature documentary film. Two out of three of the others have also taken the tragic death of a person to reveal some kind of wider truth. But what I think you see in Marc's work is this incredible ability to take a single story and then put it within a context that has resonance way beyond that person's single story. Using Molly's story, with Shoshana’s work as a thread, you've got something that grips you emotionally and intellectually. You watch it, and it feels like a thriller, even though you kind of know the ending.

You're constantly being exposed to twists and turns, moments of history that join dots, that you think 'I knew that, but I hadn't realised that'. So it's all things that you know are there, but when you see it all laid out together: Molly's story, the story of the development of social media, the way our democracy has changed after 9/11 and the Twin Towers. The way successive governments have just completely ignored their obligation that we assume our government has to keep us safe, while all the while, these companies have got bigger and bigger.

Much of that work is in the editing. I think the work of Emiliano Batista really shines through in the film. What you've also got at the heart of this documentary, which is touching a lot of people, are Molly's friends and their voices. And I think they do two things: One, they remind us of the tragedy that Molly's not there as part of that group of friends. Two, that, in a way, these are the survivors, and they are survivors of a completely unethical human experiment that they had no say in. They're all 22 or 23 now, and they speak to all of us who were a part of that experiment, but in such a fresh way, because they’ve lived it.

Q: What has it been like working with Molly's friends and family?

A: So, I've only got to know them since the film was finished when we started to do the test screenings. One of the things that really struck me was after one of the first times that one of Molly's friends, Charlotte, had watched the film with an audience. She had watched it by herself before. But when she watched it with an audience, and she was really brave, and went onto a panel, and she was asked, on the face of it, quite a simple question, why did you agree to take part in this film? And the answer that she gave will always stay with me. What Charlotte said was on the lines of: "I did this for Molly, because I want everyone to remember her name. I'm doing this for all the girls like Molly around the world who are still being exposed to harmful content. And in a way, I realise that I'm also doing it for my 14-year-old self, because I'm still angry that we were allowed to be part of that experiment and this is some way of giving voice to that anger". Anger is an absolutely justifiable response, given what she has been through, and I think anger may well be an emotion that others have watching the film. So we have to think about what we do constructively with that.

Q: How would you sum up 'Molly Vs The Machines' in one sentence?

A: We've all got a sense that there's something wrong with social media, and that it makes life somehow worse…and this is a film that explains why. 

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Make sure that you catch the film in a cinema this Sunday, if you can! It’s not easy - but it’s worth it - and after the film, there’s a panel discussion, and they are definitely worth watching before you take the conversation home - or wherever you want to have it.

"Over the course of making the film, the question I’m always asked is ‘what can we do about this?’ Of course, there is a wide spectrum of answers out there offered by people far more qualified than me, but nevertheless, here’s what I've been imagining:

We could restrict big tech’s access to our lives. We could begin by reclaiming our bedrooms as private places, prohibiting data extraction from within those four walls. After all, in the real world, we don’t let strangers sit at the foot of our beds to observe and manipulate our behaviour like puppeteers." - Marc Silver

Click here to find out where YOU can watch this!

Click here for the 'Molly Vs The Machines' website