For this screening event SPUR is continuing its research into the idea of the impending dystopic future, relaying our fears about what could happen to what might already be happening now. Looking toward or even into the future is a hard concept to comprehend, and while we question what affect developing technology will have on the world we should also start to question what affect will it have on human behaviour as a whole.
Films:
August Juncture, 2010
Chris Beckman, dir
When lovelorn amateur scientist August Juncture builds a time machine in his garage, with the help of a public access TV host and a millionaire cowboy philanthropist, he sets out to prove to the world that time travel is indeed possible, and, just maybe, win back his ex-girlfriend along the way.
The Maiden Voyage of August Juncture’s Incredible Time Machine is a short film written by Matt Stowe and made by Chris Beckman, Ryan Bennett, Brook Linder, Sophie Parker, Max Rosen, and Matt Stowe in 2010 – the fourth in a series of five collaborative short films made by the group in Springfield, Missouri between 2008 and 2011 that aimed to imbue comedic narrative conventions with an unexpected emotional core.
Welcome To The Neighbourhood, 2014
Max Rosen, dir
In a suburban wasteland, sometime before or after the end of civilization, a man not looking for anything stumbles upon something.
“I grew up in a very suburb-laden area of the Midwestern United States. Suburban neighborhoods can be very American in the brightest, blandest way, but when they’re empty or abandoned or even just eerily quiet, they take on a whole new feeling. Just the kind of vaguely ominous atmosphere I like to work in. All of my dreams are nightmares, and a lot of them are about the end of the world. Maybe Welcome to the Neighborhood is about that too; who’s to say really. I made this movie with a few friends over four weekday mornings before our lead actor had to go to work at a health food store.”
“Max Rosen is an American filmmaker and visual artist from Springfield, Missouri. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, but not the cool part. He is currently shooting his feature debut. It will be released in a million years. You can peruse his handmade collage work at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaxRosenStore.”
www.vimeo.com/maxrosen
The Machine Stops, 1966
Written by E.M. Forster
Forster depicts a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Individuals now live in isolation below ground in a standard ‘cell’, with all needs, bodily or spiritual met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. Not all Forster’’s stories were optimistic about the future, The Machine Stops shows Forster was concerned about human dependence on technology, he predicts and criticises our reliance on machines and with that showing us a possible or inevitable future of what happens when they stop.
Running times:
6.30pm – Introduction
6.35pm – August Juncture
6.45pm – Welcome To The Neighbourhood
7.00pm – The Machine Stops