Over 100 Film Screenings, Premieres and Events Will Be Held From May 25-30, 2017 Festival Launches New Special Guest Panel Series PKD Talks: Conversations with
Luminaries, Visionaries and Mavericks
(New York City, N.Y.) April 13, 2017 — The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its fifth annual event from May 25-30, 2017. This year’s anniversary program will spotlight over 100 films, exclusive premieres, discussions, virtual reality demonstrations and celebratory gatherings as the festival continues its everlasting tribute to the master of science fiction, Philip K. Dick.
For the past five years, The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival has exhibited quality independent sci-fi for audiences who crave new innovative pathways of expression. The festival supports freethinking filmmakers equipped with the knowledge of our world, brave enough to see beyond the barriers of existence and who give to an art form that unites the masses. Daniel Abella, the founder and director of the festival, enthused about this year’s milestone event and the high-caliber official selections. “I am very excited to present this year’s fifth annual festival in our home of New York City. The lineup includes films from throughout the world and represents talent across all backgrounds and beliefs.”
Abella added, “Science fiction continues to entertain but also inform us about current and future trends and it is our mission to bring together like- minded people tied by a common purpose to remain human in a world of progressive dehumanization.” While praising the works and prophecies of the festival’s namesake, Abella said, “Philip K. Dick’s message is that in spite of forces marshaled against the human spirit, both political and technological, humanity can prevail if we find the will and determination to pave a better future. This festival represents his voice.”
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017:
Lovecraft Bar NYC (50 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009)
Pre-Festival Filmmakers Reception Time: 7:00pm – 12:00am
A special reception honors the fifth annual film festival’s anniversary and celebrates its lineup of indie cinema’s most visionary filmmakers. The gathering, hosted at one of the city’s most lively and atmospheric establishments, is open to all filmmakers, guests and pass holders.
FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017:
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106)
Block One: International Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Monochrome – Trailer (2016)
Director: Kodi Zene
Run Time/Country: 2 min, USA
Synopsis: Traded and sold as currency, the outcast people known as “Hues” are hunted down in a black and white world.
The Plague Doctor – Trailer (2014)
Director: Emanuele Mengotti
Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA/Italy
Synopsis: Upon being called to care for an elderly man, a young doctor finds himself trapped in deranged visions mixing his reality with the obscure legend of an ancient Italian mask and the echoes of a timeless love.
2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be (2016)
Director: Marco Checa Garcia
Run Time/Country: 18 min, Canada
Synopsis: Set in a dystopian future where population is strictly controlled, a father waits for his children to be born. In a deserted hospital waiting room, one man must ask himself exactly what he is willing to do to give his children a chance at life, any life at all.
FTL (2017) — North American Premiere
Director: Adam Stern
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Canada
Synopsis: A lone astronaut testing the first faster-than-light spacecraft travels farther than he imagined possible.
Sociopaths (2016)
Director: A.T.
Run Time/Country: 5 min, Japan
Synopsis: A girl encounters an android on the street. She finds something strange about the experience and decides to follow the android to give it a “message.”
The Plan (2016)
Director: Pierre Teulières
Run Time/Country: 13 min, France
Synopsis: In an isolated mansion, a creature follows the orders of his master in order to accomplish a plan that will change the world. Meanwhile, a desperate father is looking for his missing daughter.
Olfactory (2016)
Director: Christopher Piazza
Run Time/Country: 25 min, USA
Synopsis: Olfactory is a system that allows users to re-experience memories and when an app programmer hacks the system to alter his memories he loses his grip on reality.
Anamnesis (2016)
Director: Sebastien Tobler
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: A brilliant neuro-cyberneticist attempts to rehabilitate her lost lover who, unable to feel emotions violently questions his existence in a reality that is never what it seems.
Entropy (2016)
Director: Tim Cahn
Run Time/Country: 3 min, USA
Synopsis: A spaceship travels beyond Earth.
Block Two: Feature Documentary Time: 8:00pm – 10:00pm
The Future Is Planning a Farewell Tour (2017)
Director: Milton Moses Ginsberg
Run Time/Country: 85 min, USA
Synopsis: Presenting clips from past and present science fiction films and interviews with members of the scientific and political communities, the acclaimed editor and director of Coming Apart (1969) and The Werewolf of Washington (1973) examines if these films are just entertainment or predictions of humanity’s future and demise.
SATURDAY, MAY 27, 2017:
SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, New York City, NY 10013)
Block One: Animated Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
WeiTing InTheSky (2016)
Director: Bob White
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: Imagine a weak signal containing an alien movie from outer space. When threatened a pair of metallic beings strike back.
Waking Dreams (2014)
Director: Brad Jones and Jacob Carah
Run Time/Country: 19 min, USA
Synopsis: A disabled young man overcomes his afflictions with the power of his imagination. The story drifts between fantasy and reality, combining elements of his real life with imaginative material inspired by the works of noted science fiction author Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game).
Dogstein: Super Science Adventure (2017)
Director: Tianyiming Qi
Run Time/Country: 3 min, China
Synopsis: In classic black and white 3D animation, the story depicts a neurotic dog involved with a human’s revenge of an alien.
01001001 (2016)
Director: Yu Sato
Run Time/Country: 3 min, Japan
Synopsis: A robot awakens amongst heaps of trash in the deep recesses of a dark alley. With no recollection of what happened before or after he was thrown away, will this robot try to return home to the family he worked for?
OR (2016)
Director: Luc Londe
Run Time/Country: 11 min, USA
Synopsis: A two-dimensional creature in a 3D world, OR awakens in a strange place and his search for a companion will require sacrifice.
Substrate (2016)
Director: Margie Kelk
Run Time/Country: 4 min, Canada
Synopsis: The director explains this work as “an exploration or a glimpse of mythical lives glowing under the earth’s surface, beneath the eternal flux, with energies hidden deep within the earth. There is mystery in my animation, and a sense of the otherworldly tempered with a dash of humor. A colorful array of characters interacts with metaphorical electronic components to present vignettes of activity and emotion in a rugged terrain.”
The Gurgle (2016)
Director: Paul Huenemann
Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
Synopsis: Late one night a man waits for a but, but something is waiting for him.
Green Light (2017)
Director: Seong-Min Kim
Run Time/Country: 15 min, South Korea
Synopsis: The world is crippled after nuclear war with the earth’s ecosystem completely destroyed. A survivor of the polluted land soon stumbles upon a robot soldier M626 at an abandoned city and they become friends.
Block Two: Introduction To The Unreal Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
The Good Machine (2015)
Director: Michael Craft
Run Time/Country: 12 min, USA
Synopsis: A young woman struggles with her boyfriend’s addiction to a virtual reality device that allows him to interact with his dreams. She attempts to help him let go of his compulsion but he resists. Working at her job in a library and catching the train to and from work she has her own dream, a life together with her boyfriend free from addiction.
Quantum Satori (2016)
Director: Samuel Vanclooster
Run Time/Country: 14 min, Belgium
Synopsis: A science fusion short that mirrors its public’s interpretation through a thought-provoking maze of film scenes.
Split Ticket (2016)
Director: Alfred Thomas Catalfo
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: In 1947, newly-minted congressmen John F. Kennedy (age 29) and Richard Nixon (age 34) travel to Pennsylvania where they must make a fateful decision. A supernatural drama based on true events.
Mission Backup Earth (2016)
Director: Alexander Pfander
Run Time/Country: 11 min, Germany
Synopsis: A ship is on a dangerous collision course with an unknown celestial body during an interstellar mission to colonize exoplanets and mission failure is not an option.
Block Three: Feature Documentary + PKD Talks Series Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
How to Build a Time Machine (2016)
Director: Jay Cheel
Run Time/Country: 82 min, Canada
Synopsis: Two men work together to discover the truth and possibilities of time travel. Film animator Rob Niosi explores the idea of recreating the sled in the H. G. Wells-inspired film The Time Machine (1960) directed by George Pal while Dr. Ronald Mallett, a theoretical physicist and faculty member at University of Connecticut who has long been distressed by the death of his father, works on a time portal based on Einstein’s Equation.
PKD Talks: Conversations with Luminaries, Visionaries and Mavericks: Is Science Fiction The Science of the Future? Part 2
A discussion with Dr. Ronald Mallett, author of Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality, explores the mindset of science fiction and its translation into science. The talk serves as a follow-up to Mallett’s well-received appearance at the inaugural film festival in 2012.
Block Four: Remote Viewing Short Documentary + PKD Talks Series Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm
A Life Gone Wild (2016) — World Premiere
Director: Maryanne Bilham-Knight
Run Time/Country: 18 min, USA
Synopsis: A biopic of visionary artist and writer Ingo Swann, the “father of remote viewing,” the CIA’s paranormal spying program and longtime friend of Philip K. Dick. Swann’s life on the frontier of the paranormal included creating the Stargate Project, “psychic probes” of Jupiter, Mercury, the Moon and Mars which detailed many features that came to be verified years later by NASA. Drawing on archives and new interviews, the film is also an exploration of the nature of reality as perceived via the six senses of the world’s most-tested psychic.
PKD Talks: Conversations with Luminaries, Visionaries and Mavericks:
The panel will discuss “remote viewing,” a mental faculty that allows a perceiver or “viewer” to describe and give details about a target that is inaccessible to normal senses due to distance, time, or shielding. Participants will share remarkable and personal stories about Mr. Swann and how his paranormal abilities led to the first “Psychic Spies” program. Festival director Daniel Abella will moderate the discussion with:
- Maryanne Bilham-Knight, director of A Life Gone Wild and trained remote viewer.
- LTC Thomas McNear, USA, Ret., the first member of Swann’s Army Stargate program.
- Blynne Olivieri, assistant professor and head of Special Collections at the University of West Georgia.
- Dr. Harold Puthoff, president and CEO of EarthTech International, Inc. and director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin.
- Jacques Vallee, private investor, president of Documatica Financial and collaborator with Swann.
Block Five: Inspired and Adapted Philip K. Dick Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Adam Peiper (2015)
Director: Mónica Mateo
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Spain
Synopsis: The inlayer of a task tank works tirelessly on what seems to be a monotonous and mechanized day over and over, which will become a nightmare.Aden (2015)
Director: Gary Lee
Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA/Taiwan
Synopsis: Aden, a powerful multinational corporation, must deploy a bounty hunter in order to stop an unseen creature forged from a child’s imagination.The Parcel (2015)
Director: Hayden Phipps and Brett Williams
Run Time/Country: 6 min, South Africa
Synopsis: A haunting tale of a suburban man’s encounter with a mysterious parcel. After collecting the parcel from his local post office he is confronted with an unsettling force that embeds itself into his reality.Tears in the Rain (2017)
Director: Christopher Grant Harvey
Run Time/Country: 11 min, South Africa
Synopsis: An engrossing look into the world of Philip K. Dick’s legendary novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and its motion picture adaptation Blade Runner (1982).Monsieur Hernst (2016)
Director: Vincent Cappello
Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
Synopsis: Monsieur Hernst has forgotten everything including his own identity and his doctor pushes through the ages of his life trying to recover the memory of the event that brought him to this moment.Piper in the Woods (2016)
Director: Matthew Ramirez
Run Time/Country: 7 min, USA
Synopsis: With strange things happening at a remote research station, a university psychologist is sent to investigate. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.Beyond the Doors (2016)
Director: Brent Murray
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A man’s quest to find the perfect cuckoo clock will cost him much more than he could ever imagine.Three Point Dynamics (2016)
Director: Keaton Smith
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: An alcoholic theoretical physicist seeks to right the wrongs of his past by applying his unified theory to reality.
The Sleepers (2016)
Director: Joe Lueben
Run Time/Country: 22 min, USA
Synopsis: Four female patients known as “The Sleepers” who live in a windowless building separated from the outside world spend 23 hours of their day in a drug-induced dream state and are awakened for only one hour. A reporter gains access to their room and interviews each to figure out why they chose sleep over life.
Block Six: International Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Danger Diva – Trailer (2017)
Director: Robert McGinley
Run Time/Country: 3 min, USA
Synopsis: A cyberpunk musical/thriller about a hard rocking singer who is coerced into becoming an electronically enhanced new-music diva by her high tech billionaire patron.
Electroma – Trailer (2016)
Director: Francesco Siro Brigiano
Run Time/Country: 3 min, Italy
Synopsis: An English reporter on investigation close in Sicily receives a phone call in the middle of the night, causing him to leave.
Still Here (2017)
Director: Ryan Kreston
Run Time/Country: 17 min, USA
Synopsis: The last person on Earth grapples with existence after an apocalyptic event causes all life to freeze in time.
Adam (2016)
Director: Veselin Efremov
Run Time/Country: 6 min, Denmark/Bulgaria/Lithuania/Sweden/UK
Synopsis: In a dystopian future, an organic body is a privilege easy to lose and a convict awakens to the grim reality of having been transferred into a mechanical shell.
Factory 91 (2017)
Director: Madeline Leshner
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: In a mythical suburb called Bellery, a 12-year-old girl lives with her older sister and catatonic grandfather. Above them atop a tall hill on the outskirts of town is Factory 91. Once a place of scientific innovation and an oasis for the neighborhood’s youth it now sits decrepit and isolated from the town below with a mysterious doctor living inside.
Table 51 (2016)
Director: Joseph Day
Run Time/Country: 7 min, USA
Synopsis: On the first day of her new job, a woman learns from her mysterious employer the proper methods in dissecting an alien corpse.
Popsy (2016)
Director: Julien Homsy
Run Time/Country: 18 min, France/Canada
Synopsis: A man’s addiction to poker leads him into deep trouble and forced to cover his debt, he reaches a point of no return. Adapted from a short story by Stephen King.
Man in Phone (2016)
Director: Mackenzie Sheppard
Run Time/Country: 7 min, Japan
Synopsis: A man mysteriously wakes up inside of his phone and is forced to confront the destruction his addiction to technology has wreaked on his life. In the face of unusual obstacles, he attempts to escape the phone and return to his normal life all before draining his battery down to zero.
Static (2016)
Director: Tanya Lemke
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Canada
Synopsis: A heartbroken man gets a second chance at redemption when he is able to deliver his wife’s dying wish to another longtime companion, his faithful TV.
Hum (2016)
Director: Willem Grobler
Run Time/Country: 24 min, South Africa
Synopsis: A paranoid schizophrenic must overcome a mysterious debilitating hum that only he hears with the help of his psychiatrist, so that he can win back the love of his life.
Block Seven: Sci-Fi Feature Time: 9:00pm – 11:00pm
The Tomorrow Paradox (2016) — NYC Premiere
Director: Bruce Wemple
Run Time/Country: 96 min, USA
Synopsis: A young insomniac’s black-market sleep aid sends his mind time traveling one day into the future where he is the suspect in the disappearance of a girl he hasn’t met yet.
Block Eight: Virtual Reality and Immersive Experience Program Time: 11:00am – 6:00pm
I, Philip (2016)
Director: Pierre Zandrowicz
Run Time/Country: 14 min, France
Synopsis: In early 2005, David Hanson, an American robotics is developing its first android human. His name is Phil, a copy of the famous science fiction author Philip K. Dick. In a few weeks, Phil became famous on the internet and in the author’s fan circles and is presented in several conferences around the world. In late 2005, the head of the android disappeared during a flight on America West Airlines between Dallas and Las Vegas. Through the memories of the android and those of the author, the film offers an interpretation of Phil’s life.
Remember (2016)
Director: George Kacevski
Run Time/Country: 3 min, Australia
Synopsis: A virtual reality sci-fi film exploring humanity’s relationship with technology and its influence on our reality.
Dead Head (2016)
Director: Ben Leonberg
Run Time/Country: 3 min, USA
Synopsis: Experience a unique perspective of the Zombie Apocalypse. Will Hank and Julie make it out of the barn alive? Find out in this head- pounding Virtual Reality encounter like you’ve never seen.
I’ll Make You Bleed (2016)
Director: Ryan Hartsell
Run Time/Country: 6 min, USA
Synopsis: Standing helpless, bear witness to a ritualistic virgin suicide in the tradition of The Bohemian Grove Society. The viewer is transported into an emotional and visceral experience set to the music of “These Machines are Winning.” This 360° VR video was shot against a beautiful moonlit backdrop using a custom low-light sensitive camera rig making it one of the first high quality nighttime VR pieces to date.
The Probe (2016)
Director: Aldo Romero
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: An automated space probe named “Annie Em” sent to explore Titan becomes the first true artificial intelligence from Earth when it encounters an extraterrestrial spacecraft and is “updated” to become self aware.
Volcanos: An Immersive Experience/Virtual Reality 360° 3D (2016)
Director: Jörg Courtial
Run Time/Country: 3 min, Germany
Synopsis: Lava bombs, towering clouds of ashes – these are some of many jaw dropping phenomena that can be marveled at in this 3D-360° film. Never before could one experience erupting volcanoes in such intensity and immersion. The impression is enhanced by not only giving the viewer the freedom to look all around him/her as it is also stereoscopic.
SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2017:
SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, New York City, NY 10013)
Block One: Fantasy and The Fantastic Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm
Embers & Dust (2016)
Director: Patrick Biesemans
Run Time/Country: 11 min, USA
Synopsis: As the radio broadcast of Orson Welles’ War of The Worlds travels across the airwaves, a young boy’s imagination is sparked, sending him on his own kind of vision quest deep into the neighboring forest.
Dryad (2016)
Director: Thomas Vernay
Run Time/Country: 12 min, France
Synopsis: The wind blows and noises of armor resound. A knight escorts a young woman athwart plains. The thunder begins to scold, clouds invade the landscape. The knight, worried, stares at the castle on the horizon. The end is close.
The Ningyo (2017)
Director: Miguel Ortega
Run Time/Country: 28 min, USA
Synopsis: Set in 1909, this Faustian tale about cryptozoology and losing oneself in the process of achieving goals, follows the search for mythological or unproven creatures.
Worlds Apart (2016)
Director: Timothy Wade
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Australia
Synopsis: An idealistic English soldier rescued from the defeat at Dunkirk awakens to find himself sharing a London hospital room with an elderly man who has anti-war and anti-establishment beliefs. Their conflict peaks when the soldier learns the stranger’s identity and the true nature of the war raging around them.
The Bridge (2016)
Director: Keith Richner
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: Bridges can connect or divide us. Where we end up might not always be where we planned.
Sputnik (2016)
Director: Vicente Bonet
Run Time/Country: 23 min, Spain
Synopsis: Trouble begins when a cosmonaut, converted as the first human sent out to space, confronts a technical failure that will make his return alive impossible. As he is orbiting the earth in his capsule waiting for his tragic end, a casual encounter will change his life.
Block Two: Earth in Crisis Feature Documentary Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Sixteen Legs (2016) — East Coast Premiere
Director: Niall Doran and Justin Smith
Run Time/Country: 101 min, Australia
Synopsis: Giant prehistoric spiders the size of dinner plates try to find love in the dark. As the world rapidly descends into the next period of global mass extinction, a message of hope comes from an unlikely hero: a creature, often reviled that has survived previous mass extinctions and climatic change in a magical ecosystem hidden beneath one of the world’s last great wildernesses. With spectacular imagery and a dark- fantasy twist, this is a real-world “Charlotte’s Web”, capitalizing on master story-teller Neil Gaiman’s global popularity to bring a story of stability and solitude into our world of rapid change.
Block Three: Feature Documentary + PKD Talks Series Time: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Gods Among Us: The Science of Contact (2016) — USA Premiere
Director: Caroline Cory
Run Time/Country: 94 min, USA
Synopsis: Discover the jaw-dropping stories of individuals from around the world who share similar accounts of extraterrestrial and otherworldly encounters. Producer and host Caroline Cory takes the viewers on an extraordinary journey to uncover whether these seemingly independent yet parallel reports may actually be scientific evidence of a greater phenomenon at work. Through a series of groundbreaking on-camera experiments, irrefutable science, and interviews with leading scientists, viewers will find themselves pondering the nature of their own reality or yet the true origin of the human species and be shown that the traditionally unexplained is in fact far more attributable to science than fiction.
PKD Talks: Conversations with Luminaries, Visionaries and Mavericks: The Coming Disclosure
The panel will discuss the vast alien presence on earth, the coming disclosure and the future of humanity. Festival director Daniel Abella will moderate the discussion with:
- Caroline Cory, director of Gods Among Us: The Science of Contact and founder of The Omnium Method of Consciousness Education.
- Rudy Schild, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
- Joe Cerletti, alien experiencer and host of Zero Dark Radio on YouTube.
Block Four: They Are Watching Us Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
P.L.U.G. (2014)
Director: David Levy
Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA
Synopsis: On a post-apocalyptic earth, the only human survivor is a woman raised by robots after humanity abandoned the planet they destroyed with nuclear warfare. She cannot forget her parents nor ignore her yearning to find other organic life. A hunt she sets out on with a military unit leads her to discover the reality she has been denied, sparking her ultimate quest.
Panopticon (2016)
Director: Jarod Su
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: A drone operator in a nationwide government security system finds the system is being used for more than just preventing terrorist threats.
Conventuram (2016)
Director: Feng Wan
Run Time/Country: 10 min, Sweden
Synopsis: If time and space are illusions of our minds, then what happens when we lose our minds?
UU (2017)
Director: Jeremiah Hammerling
Run Time/Country: 9pm, Singapore
Synopsis: In the near future, sleep has become a crime and police units called “Wakes'”are tasked with incarcerating sleepers.
Appellation (2016)
Director: Tracy Mathewson
Run Time/Country: 11 min, UK
Synopsis: A scientist’s secret research is threatened when a neighbor reports his suspicious behavior.
Without Gravity, Chocolate Floats (2016)
Director: Y.H. Pou
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A U.F.O. fanatic unexpectedly proves that extraterrestrial life forms exists.
Art For Data Center Workers (2016)
Director: Eva Pel
Run Time/Country: 12 min, Amsterdam
Synopsis: A short experimental art film about an imaginary art exhibition for the workman of the data center inside the high security data center in Amsterdam.
Block Five: Humanity Prevails Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Seeds (2016)
Director: Guillaume Fradin
Run Time/Country: 12 min, UK
Synopsis: A young female astronaut trains for the first expedition to Mars.
What Love Wrote (2016)
Director: Iain Forbes
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Norway
Synopsis: The tale of Isak and Ester and the wounds time would not heal.
Cradle (2016)
Director: Damon Duncan
Run Time/Country: 15 min, New Zealand
Synopsis: A fourteen year old girl who has spent her entire life in space on the spaceship Cradle survives an explosion that cripples the craft and seriously injures her father. As the clock counts down to self-destruction on Cradle’s computer, a crew member assumes control of the ship and refuses to perform the life saving medical procedure her father desperately needs. The girl soon discovers the shocking truth of her existence and must face her uncertain future armed with the knowledge that her life in space is not as it seems.
Entanglement (2016)
Director: Arthur Veenema
Run Time/Country: 14 min, USA
Synopsis: In the near future as the world outside falls apart, people can live out their lives in solitude without ever leaving the safety of their home. Everything is for sale online and brought to their doorstep including the need for human interaction. Entanglement exists as a service to bring people together, connecting soul mates that can promise to make each other’s lives whole.
Absence Felt (2016)
Director: Aniruddha Pande
Run Time/Country: 5 min, Canada
Synopsis: A man hosts a party for his friends to show off his new robot servant but the party takes an unexpected turn when the robot discovers the true intentions of the guests.
Block Six: Sci-Fi Feature Time: 9:00pm – 11:00pm
Huldra: Lady of the Forest (2016) — USA Premiere
Director: Ove Valeskog
Run Time/Country: 109 min, Sweden
Synopsis: A woman lives a lonely and regimented life in Berlin and until she receives a phone call from her long lost love who reminds her of their carefree childhood. He wants her to join him for a hike in the wilderness with some of their mutual childhood friends. One of them has been told of a strange hermitic hippie-like society out in the Swedish wilderness and the group set off on an adventure unaware of the fact that once they reach their destination nothing will ever be the same again.
MONDAY, MAY 29, 2017:
Producers Club (358 W 44th Street, New York, NY 10036)
Block One: Trippy and Experimental Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 11:00am – 12:30pm
Expanded Metal (2016)
Director: Aaron Zomback
Run Time/Country: 24 min, USA
Synopsis: A group of young dwellers watch the flickering light from above.
Spiral Labyrinth (Laberinto en Espiral) (2016)
Director: Cecilia Pego
Run Time/Country: 27 min, Mexico
Synopsis: An artist experiences a creative crisis which impedes him to paint or communicate with the outside world. His hand transforms into a monstrous being that begins to paint new spaces where the artist loses and finds himself again in an infinite cycle of labyrinths.
The Aleph (2016)
Director: Cenk Guzelis
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Austria
Synopsis: Aleph, found in the woods of Vienna, is a point in a space which contains all the points of universe, where all the universe can be observed without distortion or confusion. Based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges.
The Void (2016)
Director: Mike Czuba
Run Time/Country: 8 min, Canada
Synopsis: A space that exists in another reality, where citizens are separated into the programmed or “The Numbers” and the Humanoids, who are deemed empty until they are subjected to the procedure of programming. There are 34 citizen laws and not everyone follows them.
Tristes Deserts: A Robot’s Tale (2015)
Director: Stephanie Winter
Run Time/Country: 20 min, Germany
Synopsis: Originating in the idea of an audiovisual realization of M.A. Charpentier’s lyrical song “Tristes Deserts” and motivated by the constant interaction of image and sound, a baroque-intergalactic musical short film was developed, in which the boundaries between human and machine between baroque music and electronic sounds become blurred. In a time dominated by artificial intelligence, the extravagant musical short film tells the story of a lonely baroque robot in a battle between good and evil, recalling the magic of the early cinema.
Io (2016)
Director: Imad Hatem
Run Time/Country: 45 min, France
Synopsis: The life of “Me” changes when the famous cyber-activist “Sad Monkey” gets interested by him.
Block Two: Personalities and Profiles Shorts Time: 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Ink, Cocks & Rock’n’Roll (2017)
Director: Matt Harlock
Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK
Synopsis: A controversial comic artist is being interviewed about his artistic alter ego, a perverted monster, but where does the man stop and the alter ego start and just who is in control?
Peter (2014)
Director: Jane Topping
Run Time/Country: 30 min, UK
Synopsis: Seeking to reframe Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner, long considered a classic of dystopian cinema, with the intention of positioning the artist within the text and so implying that such radical gestures are not only warranted and necessary, but also implicit in the contemporary viewer’s experience of watching film.
Block Three: Our Technological Future: Friend or Foe? Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Healed (2015)
Director: George O’Connor
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: After all life-threatening diseases and illnesses are suddenly and mysteriously cured, a priest and his flock struggle to reconcile their faith with this new reality. Based on the graphic novel Healed, written by George O’Connor and illustrated by Griffin Ess.
Gadget (2016)
Director: Sebastiano Pupino
Run Time/Country: 10 min, UK
Synopsis: Set in the near future, a man is jaded by the alienating technology and virtual obsessed world he lives in.
Clarity (2016)
Director: Dustin Brown
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: A story of obsession, power and discovery centering around a maverick neuroscientist, her doting pupil and an alluring machine that could revolutionize brain science.
Airlock (2016)
Director: Marc Furmie
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Australia
Synopsis: A derelict ship docks with a remote space station and the security team tasked with the investigation discovers the crew on board dead and a group of stowaway refugees.
Squares (2016)
Director: Bernard Kordieh
Run Time/Country: 13 min, UK
Synopsis: A man journeys through a world outside time and space to relive moments with his soul mate. Unable to exist in the present, he is intervened by a friend with a special message.
IM Perfekt (2016)
Director: Zsuzsanna Koszti
Run Time/Country: 12 min, Hungary
Synopsis: In 2046, technology shapes lives in everyday situations. What if someone else controls your senses?
Buttercup (2016)
Director: Jason Neulander
Run Time/Country: 6 min, USA
Synopsis: A woman’s new babysitter asks if there are any bedtime rituals she should know about. There are.
Block Four: Sci-Fi Feature Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Director: Renchao Wang
Run Time/Country: 60 min, China
Synopsis: A girl named comes to a lonely island to save the world in less than 24 hours as men in black are chasing her. What does she bring with her and how could she save mankind from the supernova explosion?
Block Five: Sci-Fi Feature Time: 4:30pm – 6:00pm
Megellan (2017)
Director: Rob York
Run Time/Country: 101 min, USA
Synopsis: After NASA picks up a trio of mysterious signals from within our own solar system, an astronaut is dispatched on a multi-year solo mission aboard the Magellan spacecraft to investigate the sources.
Block Six: Eerie and Supernatural Shorts Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
An Eldritch Place (2016)
Director: Julien Jauniaux
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Belgium
Synopsis: When a man accepts a job as a night watchman. he discovers the obscure secret hiding in his garage.
Occam’s Razor (2016)
Director: Makan Talayeh
Run Time/Country: 18 min, USA
Synopsis: On a winter night in 1986, three travelers are plagued by mysterious events at an isolated motel in Death Valley.
The Outage (2016)
Director: Makan Talayeh
Run Time/Country: 19 min, USA
Synopsis: The power fails in the city. What ensues in the wake is an incisive tête-à-tête between two stranded strangers who grapple with the dilemma of an increasingly intimate encounter: how much does one really want to know about the other, and what precisely is one inclined to reveal? Inspired by a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.
Creatures of Whitechapel (2016)
Director: Jonathan Martin
Run Time/Country: 25 min, USA/UK
Synopsis: A twisted new take on the Frankenstein legend and its surrounding madness.
III (2016) — World Premiere
Director: Jean-Philippe Lopez
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Australia
Synopsis: Trapped in a virtual reality experiment, III will face the most terrifying evil she will ever know.
Allhallowtide (2016)
Director: Tia Salisbury
Run Time/Country: 9 min, UK
Synopsis: It is an important night for Molly, but her feckless housemate Dan has totally forgotten. She’s going to do everything in her power to remind him, but that’s not easy when you’ve been dead for 180 years and can’t talk.
Block Seven: Supernatural Feature Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Run Time/Country: 115 min, Sweden
Synopsis: Several dead bodies have been found in Gothenburg, striking fear into the city’s population. Clues lead to suspicions of an occult group and a former reverend who has her own reasons for wanting to stop the killings, offers to help as the path is led down a world beyond understanding.
TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017:
Instituto Cervantes (211 E 49th St, New York, NY 10017)
Block One: European and South American Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
ZONA-84 (2016)
Director: Lonan Garcia
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Spain
Synopsis: Set in a post-apocalyptic Barcelona, the mood of social criticism is related to the abuse of power which controls the earth’s essential resources.
Joe II (2015)
Director: Juan Aristizabal
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Colombia
Synopsis: In the year 2359, humans are ruled by a supercomputer which under the four laws of robotics is desperately seeking peaceful human and biomechanical co-existence. Meanwhile, Dors, a prostitute of planet Earth is locked in a preventive way with a biomechanical named Joe II, who after realizing who Dors really is, proposes a plan to escape from that place. However Dors has no idea that what Joe II really wants is to escape from captivity at all costs.
Synchronous (2016)
Director: Ricardo Fernández Jiménez
Run Time/Country: 14 min, Colombia
Synopsis: A man whose consciousness has the ability to live in two parallel worlds simultaneously must help a dangerous gangster to win a bet. But everything changes when he meets a woman.
Firpo (2015)
Director: Fernando Caneda
Run Time/Country: 14 min, Argentina
Synopsis: In a lost world devoid of human contact an unexpected event triggers an awakening in the life of two people who manage to reunite.
Einstein-Rosen (2016)
Director: Olga Osorio
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Spain
Synopsis: In the summer of 1982, a boy claims to have found a wormhole and his brother does not believe him – at least not for now.
Juliet (2015)
Director: Marc-Henri Boulier
Run Time/Country: 12 min, France
Synopsis: In a near future, the SEED Company launches with great fanfare JULIET1, the first generation of synthetic pleasure beings. But as technology evolves and new styles come and go it becomes more difficult for mankind to find their own place.
The Weaving (2016)
Director: Arthur Mercier
Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
Synopsis: A teenager has an appointment with a guidance counselor but unfortunately, the latter is missing when the boy enters the office and has been replaced by a strange machine. At the end of the meeting, he will discover much more about himself than ever before.
Georgia & the Time Machine (2016)
Director: Daniel Utrilla Cerezo
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Spain
Synopsis: It is a special day when a girl’s amazing invention is about to take its first flight but she cannot go anywhere without her father. She needs him to help make her time machine work and to accompany her on an incredible journey of the imagination.
Guests and filmmakers will be in attendance when awards are presented to the category winners as The Fifth Annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival comes to a close.
Festival Passes
Passes are on sale at thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com and through the ticketing service Eventbee at eventbee.com/v/dan999.
Friday, May 26, 2017:
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106)
Individual Film Block Pass: $15
Museum Members: Free
Note: Passes for this day’s lineup are purchased on the venue’s website at movingimage.us.
Saturday, May 27, 2017:
SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, New York City, NY 10013) Day Pass: $20 — access to all films from 11am – 5pm
Evening Pass: $20 — access to all films from 5pm – 11pm
Virtual Reality Pass: Free — included with pass to Saturday films Full Day Pass: $35
Sunday, May 28, 2017:
SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, New York City, NY 10013) Day Pass: $20 — access to all films from 11am – 6pm
Evening Pass: $20 — access to all films from 6pm – 11pm
Full Day Pass: $35
Monday, May 29, 2017:
Producers Club (358 W 44th Street, New York, NY 10036) Full Day Pass: $15
Tuesday, May 30, 2017:
Instituto Cervantes (211 E 49th St, New York, NY 10017)
Full Day Pass: $10
Complimentary Pass: Free — access with pass to any Friday through Monday films
VIP Passes:
Full Weekend Pass: $60 — access to all Saturday and Sunday lineups Full Festival Pass: $75 — access to all Friday through Tuesday lineups
About The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival:
The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival launched in 2012 as New York City’s first festival of its kind and honors the enduring legacy of novelist Philip K. Dick, whose work maintains a strong influence over modern culture and society. Organized by individuals and filmmakers who understand the difficulties and challenges of presenting a unique narrative in a corporate environment, the festival embraces original concepts and alternative approaches to storytelling in the form of independent science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy, metaphysical and virtual reality films. Since 2013, the festival has held international gatherings in Lille, France, Łódź, Poland and Cologne, Germany and many screenings throughout the year. For more information on the festival held for filmmakers by filmmakers, visit thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com.
About Philip K. Dick:
“Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.” – Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the 20th century’s most profound novelists and writers within the science fiction community. His exploration, analysis and beliefs led to the publishing of 44 novels and 121 short stories. PKD’s enormous library of works led to several film and television adaptations including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003) A Scanner Darkly (2006), Radio Free Albemuth (2010), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), Total Recall (2012) and Amazon’s critically renowned series The Man in the High Castle (2015). PKD’s enormously effective views composed of fictional universes, virtual realities, technological uprising, dystopian worlds and human mutation foresaw a significant observation at the current state of government and contemporary life. Though he is gone in the physical form, his philosophies live on in the techniques applied to present day narratives, films and ideals.
For more information:
Connect With Us:
Website: thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com
Twitter: twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest (tweet the hashtag #PKDFestNYC) Facebook: facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival
Meetup: meetup.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-science-fiction-Film-Festival