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# Lev Manovich Details Soft Cinema II, Shares Clip
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/lev-manovich-details-soft-cinema-ii-shares-clip/
- Published: 2026-10-19T19:18:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T19:18:00.000Z
- Description: The sequel to the 2005 database-cinema DVD made with Andreas Kratky assembles films in real time and now plays live HTML and JavaScript as footage.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, Lev Manovich, Generative Art, experimental film, Film, JavaScript, software, ai, #radar-item

Media theorist Lev Manovich has shared a new example from Soft Cinema II, a software engine that assembles films in real time from media databases using written rules and algorithms. In [an Oct. 6 Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeJiwIXRwci/?ref=killscreen.com), Manovich said the engine now accepts executable web code, HTML and JavaScript, as a native element of a film, alongside video, stills and audio. Watch the clip below.

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The Soft Cinema II example from [Manovich's Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeJiwIXRwci/?ref=killscreen.com). Video: Lev Manovich

The clip shows generative abstract animations that Manovich says were coded with the AI assistant Claude, playing inside a Soft Cinema II film. The page carries 20 live controls that can be changed during playback. According to Manovich, the engine can produce a single unique film or run endlessly without repeating a sequence. "Although it can include AI-generated media, the engine uses explicit algorithms rather than black-box AI models," the caption reads.

Soft Cinema II is not yet public. In a reply under the post, Manovich wrote that the software currently has 113 parameters and will be released "eventually with documentation," once it is simplified.

The original Soft Cinema was a collaboration between Manovich and artist and designer Andreas Kratky, released by MIT Press in 2005 as *Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database*, a DVD of three films with a 40-page booklet. Its software edited movies in real time by choosing elements from a database under rules set by the authors. Manovich is also the author of *The Language of New Media* (MIT Press, 2001).

For more reading, see [A sculptural camera turns a game engine into cinema](https://www.killscreen.com/kevin-peter-he-passage/) and [Manovich's Soft Cinema project page](https://manovich.net/index.php/projects/soft-cinema?ref=killscreen.com).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/10/soft-cinema-ii-7s.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/10/soft-cinema-ii-10s.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/10/soft-cinema-ii-16s.jpg)

Frames from the Soft Cinema II example. Images: Lev Manovich

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