Issue

Scientific Fiction

March 2017

Science fiction promises much -- endless possibilities for thought and invention at the furthest edges of our imaginations. And while many wonderful science fictions do just that, the genre is also all too often reduced to a vehicle for special effects and pyrotechnics. And so, we propose "Scientific Fiction", a genre that aims broadly to inspire and provoke reflection on the scientific world and the edges of knowledge. These films may furnish robots and space shuttles, and plots as impressive as anything in traditional sci-fi, but they also probe into deeper regions of interrogation into our world, ourselves, and our future. Sometimes the stories suggested by facts can be stranger than the wildest fiction.

900 seconds

FILM Belarus 2014
Robert Seneko

The mysterious stranger suddenly appears in the laboratory. He strikes scientists with dismay, but even more surprised himself - he had not planned to be here.

Lazarov

FILM France 2011
Nieto

Refusing to accept the decline of the USSR, a handful of Russian scientists working secretly to resurrect the Soviet power. Here are some new images of the mysterious program Lazarov.

Lena’s Complicated Machine

FILM United States 2015
Malik Isasis

Three years after her partner's untimely death, Dr. Lena Thierry, a neuroengineer, has been unable to move on. After years of research and development, she attempts to upload his consciousness into a computer software program. Grief is one of the hardest human emotions to cope with, and certainly a

The Perfect 46

FILM United States 2015
Brett Ryan Bonowicz

A geneticist creates a website that pairs an individual with their ideal genetic partner for children "The Perfect 46 raises disturbing (and critical) questions about the seductive power of technology," comments local author and science writer K.C. Cole, "and features a main character who seems not

The Pyramidical Science

FILM Norway, United States 2012
Anders Elsrud Hultgreen

A description of the decay of mountains in connection to the end of cosmos. Man is described in a geological timescale; they are alien visitors. THE PYRAMIDICAL SILENCE is a geological science-fiction movie describing the decay of mountains in connection to the decay of the entire cosmos, the end of

The Signal and the Noise

FILM UK 2016
Charlie Tweed

The film is voiced by an anonymous group of 'hybrid' machines, from some point in the near future, who look at humans and animals as inefficient machines and consider ways of editing and improving their code. Whilst the work appears to be a piece of science fiction all of the technologies and ideas

Bow Shock

FILM Spain 2016
Javier Diez

An object that appears in a series of recent telescope images will drive a young astronomer and her colleages to a shocking discovery. A new astronomical survey takes wide angle pictures to make a tridimensional cartography of the sky. It will find out position and distances to far galaxies, stars i

Blue-Eyed Me

FILM USA 2015
Alexey Marfin

This is the world of the 99-cent lifeform. Like a social media profile or an online shopping list tailored to our hobbies, we collect genetically modified pets, engineered to look like their owners. You are not unique; this is the post-personal economy.

Seed (2010)

FILM USA 2010
Hugo Perez

After a decade of famine and food riots, the Mendelian Corporation feeds (and controls) the world through its genetically modified seeds. Twelve-year old Juan is a member of the Sprouts-the Mendelian corporate youth program in which young boys are trained to be the eyes and ears of local authorities

Quanticare

FILM UK 2014
Amy Congdon Ann-Kristin Abel Jenny Lee

iGEM or 'the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition' is a worldwide undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Each team is "given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer

Flesh Computer

FILM USA 2014
Ethan Shaftel

A weary handyman does his best to maintain order and care for his cybernetic "pet project," a strange mix of machine and flesh. But when a pair of thuggish residents threaten a young girl, the line between human and machine becomes blurred.

BioFlanneur

FILM UK 2014
Aleks Cicha

BioFlaneur takes on board the important and emerging topic of personal bio-privacy in the era of big data, social networking and hackers. Recent developments in the field of microbiology and synthetic biology expose facts from the "micro world" which previously were unknown. That means, following sc

#PostModem

FILM USA 2012
Jillian Mayer Lucas Leyva

A comedic, satirical, sci-fi pop musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists, PostModem is the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets.

2026

FILM Egypt 2010
Maha Maamoun

Based on a text from the novel The Revolution of 2053, by Egyptian writer Mahmoud Osman, and referencing a scene from Chris Marker's La Jet̩e (1962), a time-traveller recounts his vision of the future of the Pyramids area, and by extension Egypt, in the year 2026 - a vision that strains to reach bey