Kizzuna
Kizzuna
A film about the crisis of missing space in childhood, and how phones failed at filling it.
Watch the Promo
Disconnected · Official Promo · 2025
Disconnected is a documentary for and by the first generation to grow up without the spaces where childhood used to happen — and then with phones that promised to replace them. We're not here to villainize the phone (come on, that's already been done) We're asking something much deeper: What did we lose before the phone ever arrived?
Synopsis
Disconnected follows college students, high schoolers, teachers, experts, parents, and even a Buddhist monk. We chart the loss of the free afternoons, the neighborhood roaming, the third places where identity used to form. And then what happened when phones arrived to fill that vacuum.
Through expert interviews, honest moments of struggle, and 1st hand Gen-Z experience, the film asks what we were already missing — and what it actually looks like to rebuild those spaces in a world that's moved on.
It is funny at times. Heavy at others. And it ends not with answers, but with an invitation to reimagine what childhood could be in a digital world
Tone
Still from Disconnected, 2025
What the Film Explores
How phones stepped into the vacuum left by lost IRL space — offering connection, stimulation, and somewhere to belong. We look at what that trade-off actually cost, and why it was so easy to accept.
What does it mean to actually pay attention — to a person, a moment, a thought — in a digital ecosystem built to addict? The film looks at the idea of attention activism, reclaiming our focus in a world desperate to distract us.
Before the phone, before the TV — free play, third places, independent exploration, the boredom that turns into creativity. We trace how and why those spaces disappeared from childhood, and what they were doing for us.
The film doesn't end with a problem — it ends with a movement actively remaking our relationship with technology. It's not about abandoning screens. It's about using them on our own terms.
From the Film
Production Stills — Disconnected, 2025
Recognition
Selected as one of LookUp's featured youth innovators for using documentary film to spark real-world conversation about digital wellness and the attention economy.
Recognized by the University of Colorado's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program for outstanding undergraduate research and creative work.
Named a Carnegie Young Leader in recognition of civic impact and leadership in service of the broader community.