The physical act of reading and writing has been fundamental for the sharing of knowledge since the first recordings of the written word. Writing things down not only helps with one’s memory but also allows for the transferral of history and culture for generations. Whether it’s proclamations for living a good life scrawled on ancient religious scrolls or the page-turning thrills in a book conjured up by a best-selling author, the paper holding the information can be just as important as the words on it. However, in a digital age where paper is losing its value, how does one pass along knowledge or our collective experience? This is the difficult question that Oana Suteu Khintirian sets out to find answers to in her documentary Beyond Paper.

In a time when everything is being pushed into a digital sphere, the general assumption is that everything you need can be found on the internet. As one observes through Khintirian’s own son, schools are rapidly reducing physical books in favour of iPads and online tools. While the concept of having everything one simple click away might seem efficient, Beyond Paper shows that such conveniences come at an enormous cost.

The digitization of books and letters may seem like the better way to preserve printed works, especially since they won’t have to endure the wear and tear of time and nature (e.g. rain, sand, etc.), but it comes with its disadvantages. One of which is how easy it is to completely delete works. Furthermore, with technology rapidly advancing on a daily basis, one needs to constantly update and migrate files in order to be able to open them.

In digging into the pros and cons of technology taking over the physical aspect of the written word, Khintirian effectively captures how the elimination of paper coincides with the erasure of cultures. For example, as cursive writing is no long being taught in many schools, discarded for the speed of typing on computers, the history of calligraphy and its importance goes with it.

Using her family’s journey immigrating from Romania to Canada in the mid-’90s as a jumping off point, where she only had a box full of letters and documents to link her back to her homeland, Khintirian constructs a mediative exploration of the conflict between the past and future. Taking viewers on a globetrotting journey from Montreal to the sand-covered plains of northern Mauritania, whose famed libraries in Chinguetti hold some of the oldest documents in the Islamic faith, to the streets of Paris and beyond, the documentary offers a sweeping look at the importance of language and how we consume knowledge.

While broad in its scope, Beyond Paper manages to maintain an intimate feel as Khintirian speaks with Maria Sebregondi, the founder of the famed Moleskin Notebooks, and dives into the origins of the Internet Archive. Much of this is due to the way the director weaves in the love story of two relatives who lived through some of the darkest days in Armenian history over a hundred years ago. Using their story to bring together the younger and older generations in her family, Khintirian highlights how physical letters and documents from the past can bond people in the present in most powerful ways.

In contemplating a world where paper is becoming as rare as the tools used to write on it, Beyond Paper is an effective reminder of the sense of culture, humanity, generational learnings, and other intangibles that can never be digitized.

Beyond Paper is now screening at Hot Docs.