(Woodstock, NY) June 8, 2010: What will become of America in five, 25, or even 50 years from today? FUTURESTATES is a series of groundbreaking digital shorts exploring possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities.
On Wednesday, June 30, 7:30PM at the 92Y Tribeca, the Woodstock Film Festival and 92Y Tribeca are proud to present five innovative short films, created by visionary independent filmmakers (including WFF alumni Tze Chun), that comment on our contemporary world by depicting a series of dystopian never-never lands of the near future.
A Q&A session with the filmmakers will follow the screening.
Comprising part of the FUTURESTATES digital short film program (created by ITVS and made possible by CPB), each eye-opening short demonstrates intelligent, perceptive and beautiful filmmaking as well as the politically conscious and ethnically diverse artistry WFF is known for and 92Y Tribecca embraces.
THE SHORTS
These five outstanding films will be presented at 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street in New York City on Wednesday, June 30 at 7:30pm. Tickets are available online at 92Y Tribeca
In Mister Green, directed by experienced sci-fi director Greg Pak (Robot Stories), global warming has become cataclysmic in scope. Mason Park (Tim Kang) the undersecretary of the US Department of Global Warming faces harsh criticism and constant, frustrating failure yet when an encounter with a woman from his past gives him a new solution, he is given the chance to change the world forever.
The Rise, directed by politically-charged filmmaker Garret Williams (Spark), depicts the American family dealing with a disintegrating American dream. Threatened by constant natural disaster and the collapse of the housing market, older couple John and Mary have no choice but to sell the house they built and lived in for their entire life together. Despite their reluctance to move on and their uneasiness after meeting the potential buyers, will they be able to adapt to life in a new and unfamiliar America?
Film festival award winning director Tze Chun (Children of Invention) explores the effects of economic polarization in his stunning short Silver Sling. In the near future, advances in reproductive technology have enabled wealthy women to avoid pregnancy altogether by paying for chemically-accelerated surrogate births. Struggling immigrant Lydia (Julia Kots), trying to raise funds to help her brother escape their native Russia, has agreed to carry a third surrogate child - but is she willing to give up her last chance to have children of her own?
In Tent City, directed by talented short filmmaker Aldo Velasco (Infitd), neighborhoods stand empty; their previous residents, unable to pay rent, have been forced from their homes by corporate Eviction Teams. Tent cities of an unprecedented size have grown across the U.S. at an alarming rate. Amidst this crisis, Mathew Ochoa, a well-paid member of one of these Eviction Teams, has managed to live in relative comfort with his family. However, as he begins to have doubts about evicting a whole society, Mathew must make a decision: compromise his beliefs or quit, even if it means moving to Tent City.
In Tia & Marco, directed by accomplished independent filmmaker Annie J. Howell (The Failure of Pamela Salt), every citizen must is subject to a mandatory year of service. Six months pregnant, Tia (Susan Kelechi Watson), on the last day of her year spent as a border guard, discovers Marco (Enrique Ochoa), a young illegal alien hiding in her house. At first prepared to turn him in, Tia finds her assumptions challenged by Marco and the inhuman treatment to which he and thousands of illegals have been subjected. |
