Welcome to Set is selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam to have its World Premiere on 30 January 2026! This experimental documentary reenacts the laboratory processes behind emotion recognition AI, revealing how genuine human feelings escape the datasets training algorithmic lie detectors.

Welcome to Set

Short experimental documentary
2026 | NL | 14:41 | Colour | ENG

Congratulations! You’ve been selected as a validity rater for the datasets behind emotional AI technologies.

Reenacting laboratory data collection processes, Welcome to Set invites you behind the scenes of machine learning, where data becomes drama. This experimental documentary explores how emotion, suspicion, and politics intertwine within the algorithmic practices of security.

a film by

Cyan Bae

with

Inés Dominguez del Corral
Ildiko Flipse
Charlotte Willerscheidt
Almas Mahmood
Hyewon Jeong
Yaxin Xu
Sara Amzian

produced by

Francesco Ragazzi (Dropped Frames) & Cyan Bae (Pingping Productions)

project management

Elka Smith

co-directors of photography

Cristina Lavosi & Hattie Wade

edited by

Cyan Bae

co-editor

Anastasija Piroženko

sound design

Sergio González Cuervo

music

Sergio González Cuervo

colour grading

Mayıs Rukel

graphic design

Cyan Bae

hair & makeup

Suzan van Baal

special thanks

Evangelia Kranioti
Ruben van de Ven
Anonymous Participant J

Ildikó Zonga Plájás | Albert Elings | Daeun Lim | Julia Sokolnicka | Inaya Basu | Minji Ma | Jeamin Cha | Kevin B. Lee | Sunwoo Jung | Jae Pil Eun | Inup Park | Hyeonjeong Nes Joo | Minsang Damiaan Kim | Gang Buron-Yi | Sumi Im | Junwoo Lee | Marijn Hoijtink | Juha Vuori | Lauren B. Wilcox | Rocco Bellanova | Jelena Belic | Yoav Galai | Madeline Swainhart | Alice West | Yen Kim

Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

funding

This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (SECURITY VISION, Grant Agreement No. 866535).