Ksenia Bugrimova’s 23-minute Zerno chronicles a woman’s experiment to find lasting love within an alternate universe that came into the 21st century without quite leaving the last one behind. The best of both worlds, as they say, but here it is also the modestly weird of both worlds. The unnamed woman (a pitch-perfect Olga Grishina)… Continue reading Zerno (The Seed): A Walkabout Through Genres and Eras
Tag: Sci-Fi
I Know There’s Something Here for You: Pursuit of Relief in Sci-Fi Drama
Sean Robert Kelly’s I Know There’s Something Here for You is a heartfelt drama (with undertones of comedy) about a man’s attempts to die or disappear—anything to lighten the weight of existence. And there’s the extraterrestrial life too. The film features a heavily contrasted pair of siblings—the sister responsible and grounded, the brother ambitious and… Continue reading I Know There’s Something Here for You: Pursuit of Relief in Sci-Fi Drama
Dragon Fruit: Astute Sci-fi That Shows the Tiredness of It All
J.Brown’s Dragon Fruit runs to nearly half an hour, longer than your average short, but it makes the minutes count. A film set in a dystopia (it becomes less and less meaningful to point out how well they increasingly resemble reality, but there we are) about a single mother with a necessary and ridiculously distant… Continue reading Dragon Fruit: Astute Sci-fi That Shows the Tiredness of It All
Cutting Loose: Laughably Bad Lies and Terribly Bad Friends
Sean Nam’s Cutting Loose features the ending of a bad friendship and the consternation it entails. The latter is such an overwhelming presence (and understandably so) for its protagonist that the film may have felt compelled to take its sci-fi angle seriously. The abovementioned sci-fi essentially boils down to the old My dad works for… Continue reading Cutting Loose: Laughably Bad Lies and Terribly Bad Friends
ID EST: (Sci-fi) Action for Its Own Sake
Shayda Frost’s ID EST, a 12-minute sci-fi, is weak on the writing but boasts the aesthetic of a high-budget slick, sci-fi action flick. Following the encounter of the main cast with their evil counterparts, the story dives into the background of its protagonist in flashbacks while in the present she is hanging on to her… Continue reading ID EST: (Sci-fi) Action for Its Own Sake
Odd/Even: A Plan to Escape the Present
Ya-Ting Itchy Yang’s sci-fi Odd/Even finds its protagonist on the eve of a year-long hibernation with only hours left to extricate herself from a bad relationship. The 16-minute film fits within itself the story of an abused young woman in a future where the implemented solution to a global crisis of resources is to only… Continue reading Odd/Even: A Plan to Escape the Present
Above: A Search for Meaning and the Joke Littered Path to it
Vincent Aliperti’s Above takes its time to find its feet. A 10-minute sci-fi comedy-drama about a robot in search of meaning, the film is a mix of live-action, CGI, animation and practical effects. The practical effects are employed to create the planet of Evoba, where the robot VA72597 has lived and mined for years. It… Continue reading Above: A Search for Meaning and the Joke Littered Path to it
LifeQuest: Personifying Science and Business
Richard Lounello’s 28-minute sci-fi LifeQuest interweaves two narrative threads, one existing under the ambit of the other: a corporate invention poised to become a trillion dollar product. The protagonist, a man at the cusp of an academic career and married life, lives through a blissful life until it is interrupted in a way no one… Continue reading LifeQuest: Personifying Science and Business
Genre INC.: Programmed Experiences and Their Unsettling Recycle Bin
Ela Gavrila’s 16-minute Genre INC. is a sci-fi that explores constructed, corporate mediated personal realities. Co-written by Gavrila and Gabriel Molnar, its protagonist is a young woman who repeats evening after evening that she is a hopeless romantic. Her companion listens, but never speaks. Alexa’s (Gavrila) daily loop is presented in two versions. In the… Continue reading Genre INC.: Programmed Experiences and Their Unsettling Recycle Bin
Closing Time: A Sci-Fi That Explores Regrets & Nostalgia Through Time Loop
Written and directed by Russell Goldman, Closing Time feels personal. Like an ode of sorts, to youth, to lost time, and to longing. Set in a time loop that cruises in and between 6 years, the near 20-minute long film delves into the human psyche, all through the eyes of young Trent (Caleb Foote) whose… Continue reading Closing Time: A Sci-Fi That Explores Regrets & Nostalgia Through Time Loop