Renowned Researcher Dr. Dennis McKenna To Appear At The Screening of Psychedelic Medicine Documentary The Shaman and the Scientist
This week marks the return of The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, which will present a full lineup of critically acclaimed films, exclusive premieres, panel discussions, virtual reality installations and international animation. The electrifying sixth annual event will also feature appearances by show business heavyweights Armand Assante, Charles Baker, Jonny Beauchamp, Nicki Clyne, Nana Gouvea, Michael Ironside, Vincent Pastore, Tom Sizemore, Chuck Zito and more special guests. Screening in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, the festival will run from February 23-25, 2018.
Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003)
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Program (2017)
Director: Gabriel de Urioste
Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
Synopsis: A young woman goes back to fix a broken relationship with a lost love.
Metta Via (2017)
Director: Warren Flanagan
Run Time/Country: 10 min, Canada
Synopsis: Set in the future, a young woman wakes up in a mysterious temple-like room and must figure out what her purpose is there. This in turn leads to her memories being unlocked and the true purpose of the temple, the strange sentient machines that surround her and ultimately her final destination.
The Super Recogniser (2017)
Director: Jennifer Sheridan
Run Time/Country: 11 min, UK
Synopsis: A normal guy has the very special talent of 90% facial recollection. He never forgets a face and you better hope he doesn’t knows yours.
December 17 (2016)
Director: Yuji Hariu
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Japan
Synopsis: In the not-so-distant future of Tokyo, a six-year-old boy has been confined by his parents and all his activities are done at home. His old brother, on the other hand, is free to go outside and study in school. On the night of the boy’s birthday, his brother persuades him to escape from their home.
In Between (2016)
Director: Scarlett Thiele
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: A young couple finds themselves on a plane in between life and death where they strive to save their lives. The story is a description of a near death experience, and a comment on the fragility of life and the unbiased touch of death.
Smashed (2017)
Director: Sean Lahiff
Run Time/Country: 13 min, Australia
Synopsis: A man has a thing for a woman, whose heart belongs to someone else. Egged on by his friends, he maneuvers everyone into making a hot-tempered and brainless move. This unreal drama of one night’s events tells a tale of hubris, jealousy, complete loss of control and the desire to undo the past.
Methane Momma (2016)
Director: Alain Rimbert
Run Time/Country: 40 min, France/USA
Synopsis: Global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and wars. Life on Earth has disappeared and survivors wander in space aboard a spacecraft. In one of them, MEL, a scientist biologist is sent to retrieve a space module becoming crazy while seeking traces of water on an unknown planet. While MEL seeks the prospecting module, he has an accident, the ground breaks under his feet and he is driven to the bottom of a cave. His spacesuit tears up and he loses consciousness. MEL merges into the ether and then his conscience takes the form of a cloud of methane. As he regains consciousness in a cave that seems empty of all life, he sees a female cloud of methane with whom he falls in love. This happiness then plunges him into a reverie. Starring Daytime Emmy Award winner Melvin Van Peebles, prominently known for his legendary film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Paula Henderson in the titular role.
Time: 9:00pm – 11:00pm
Alterscape (2018) — World Premiere
Director: Serge Levin
Run Time/Country: 88 min, USA
Synopsis: After a failed suicide attempt, a young man coping with loss and depression submits to a series of trials that fine-tune human emotions but his unique reaction to the tests send him on a journey that transcends both physical and perceived reality. Starring Michael Ironside (Total Recall)
Charles Baker (Breaking Bad), Alex Veadov (Act of Valor), Serge Levin (Welcome to Willits), Debbie Rochon (Model Hunger), Mack Kuhr (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Olan Montgomery (The Blacklist) and Sara K. Edwards (Mad Women). Produced by Jon Keeyes (American Nightmare) and cinematography by Richard Clabaugh (Eyeborgs).
Special Guest Panel:
Actors Michael Ironside, Charles Baker, Mack Kuhr, Olan Montgomery, Sara K. Edwards and other principal cast members with director Serge Levin will be in attendance for a post-film discussion of Alterscape.
Time: 11:00pm – 12:00am
Rabbid Jacob (2017)
Director: Donovan Alonso-Garcia
Run Time/Country: 22 min, France/Belgium
Synopsis: Two meteorites have hit Brussels. There is little time left for Jacob to restore order and moral in the depths of a city in complete loss.
MayDay (2016)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček
Run Time/Country: 13 min, France
Synopsis: A man subject to violent hallucinations must overcome the imminence of death during his extradition flight towards United States. He will face head-front his delusions, other passengers’ judgment, firmness of US law enforcement and the stress of an imminent crash.
It Began Without Warning (2017)
Director: Santiago C. Tapia, Jessica Curtright
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: “The time has come,” the Walrus said. And all the little Oysters stood and waited in a row. Produced by Couper Samuelson, the executive producer of the Golden Globe Award nominated film Get Out (2017) and Efren Ramirez (actor, Napoleon Dynamite).
Mental (2017)
Director: Jax Smith
Run Time/Country: 11 min, Canada
Synopsis: A woman sees reality through a dreamlike lens of externalized psychotic episodes. Caught in a loop of depression and anxiety she uses prescription drugs to numb herself. Unable to discern what is real and what is imaginary, she finally gives into her inner voice’s advice and embraces her biggest fear. Sometimes the only way out is through.
Devil Town (2016)
Director: Nick Barrett
Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK
Synopsis: An obnoxious letting agent in London is a man who is used to getting exactly what he wants but on this particular day, his world is about to crumble as he crosses paths with a most unusual nemesis – a man that may just save him from the end of the world.
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106)
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
AYLA (2017) — East Coast Premiere
Director: Elias
Run Time/Country: 120 min, USA
Synopsis: A man haunted by the mysterious death of his four-year-old sister brings her back to life thirty years later as an adult woman, with dire consequences. Starring Nicholas Wilder (Gut), Tristan Risk (American Mary), Saturn Award nominee Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and Sarah Schoofs (Gut).
Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003)
Time: 10:30am – 2:00pm
The Making of Marine Butterfly (2017)
Director: Alex Bartuli
Run Time/Country: 23 min, USA/Canada
Synopsis: Exploring the invention of the 3-Dimensional Audio System and where will it take mankind.
The Last Chair (2017)
Director: Jessie van Vreden, Anke Teunissen
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Netherlands
Synopsis: a documentary series about the last stage of life. With a mix of audio, 360º video and animation you step into the daily lives of two different people. Narrated by Blade Runner alum and Golden Globe Award nominee Rutger Hauer (Escape from Sobibor). Presented by WIDE VR.
The 7th Night of Thelema (2017)
Director: Gianluigi Perrone
Run Time/Country: 8 min, China
Synopsis: The story of a witches corps de ballets that haunts the body of a woman for kidnapping her souls. Presented by WIDE VR.
Dreams of Blue (2017)
Director: Valentina Paggiarin
Run Time/Country: 12 min, Italy
Synopsis: Human creativity has always pushed people to exceed their limits. Creating new life, in a God-like way, has long been a dream/nightmare of both scientists and artists. In a not-so-distant future where technological advancement has surpassed the need for ethical behavior, two scientists decide to activate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bound to become a Singularity and explore what might happen inside the “mind” of an AI that becomes both self-aware and self-conscious.
Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm
Personal Space (2018)
Director: Tom R. Pike, Zack Wallnau
Run Time/Country: 30 min, USA
Synopsis: Unbeknownst to the crew of a generation ship, their therapy sessions are being broadcast on Earth as a reality show. Starring Nicki Clyne (Battlestar Galactica) and the late Golden Globe Award nominee Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica).
Special Guest Appearance:
Actress Nicki Clyne will be in attendance for the screening of Personal Space.
Resonance (2017)
Director: William Minsky
Run Time/Country: 21 min, Canada
Synopsis: A reality where no one sleeps becomes a nightmare.
Nano (2017)
Director: Mike Manning
Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA
Synopsis: In the near future, nanotechnology administered into the bloodstream can sync with computer apps to augment the human genome. A new law mandating and regulating this once elective procedure meets resistance from hacktivists who are conspiring to thwart the impending roll-out of “Nano version 2.0.”
The Last Protester (2017)
Director: Nicole Castillo
Run Time/Country: 17 min, USA
Synopsis: A father must come to terms with the oppressive government he works for upon finding out his daughter is rebelling against it.
Sound From the Deep (2017)
Director: Antti Laakso, Joonas Allonen
Run Time/Country: 29 min, Finland
Synopsis: An international research group is searching natural resources from the Arctic Ocean. They pick up a strange underwater sound from far north, and start to follow it to the uncharted waters. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
The Pipers (2013)
Director: Ammar Quteineh
Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
Synopsis: An army psychiatrist is puzzled by a case of a French soldier who returns from the war in Afghanistan and claims that he’s a plant. Based on Philip K. Dick’s short story Piper in the Woods.
Angles (2016)
Director: David Stone
Run Time/Country: 8 min, Ireland
Synopsis: Over several years a psychologist adopts the delusions of a patient that the world is ending. The doctor fears losing his own mind, while the patient becomes oddly serene and the power dynamic shifts.
Back and Forward INC. (2014)
Director: Martin Demmer
Run Time/Country: 13 min, Germany
Synopsis: Switching between visual metaphors and a near future possible way of living created by the company Back and Forward INC., a program is launched for the modern society that nobody has to fear the effect of the burnout syndrome any longer.
It’s a Clear Day (2017)
Director: María Vázquez
Run Time/Country: 14 min, Spain
Synopsis: A woman is planning on giving a lecture on the famous science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Everything seems like her everyday routine, except for a little excitement because of the event. But as time passes she will discover nothing is what it seems.
Dystopian: Lovesong (2017)
Director: Stefano Moro
Run Time/Country: 25 min, Italy
Synopsis: The future lies inside a pressurized suit where nobody can touch you: your personal mobile home 24/7. A young worker who scavenges his quadrant for antiques for his high city clientele is haunted by a vision he sees in his virtual sex encounters and during his dreams: a music box concealing a beautiful ballerina doll.
Paleonaut (2017)
Director: Eric McEver
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Japan/China
Synopsis: A scientist studying the first human time traveller falls in love with her subject. But if her research succeeds they will become separated by eons of history. She must find a way to connect with him across the ages or lose him forever.
The Very Near Future (2017)
Director: Sebastian Egert
Run Time/Country: 5 min, Germany
Synopsis: In the very near future, a man tries to order a pizza online.
Times Of Zoe (2017)
Director: Tim Carlier
Run Time/Country: 10 min, Australia
Synopsis: A scientist develops an artificial intelligence to prove whether or not there is a god. It takes a while.
Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm
The Shaman and The Scientist (2017)
Director: Sarah Hutt
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: This short documentary explores the topic of traditional plant medicine from two perspectives – that of Don Juan Tangoa Paima, a curandero who works with Ayahuasca medicine in the Peruvian Amazon, and through the research of Dr. Dennis McKenna, who taught ethnopharmacology for over 30 years and is the brother of ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, looking for new medicines to treat schizophrenia and dementia. The story takes viewers from jungle to lab asking what is the value of undiscovered knowledge in the world’s most biodiverse biomes, and what is at stake if we allow those precious resources to be lost.
Special Guest Panel:
The screening will lead into an in-depth discussion about the making of the film, psychedelic medicine and more with Dr. Dennis McKenna, a founding board member and Director of Ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute and a key investigator in the first biomedical investigation of ayahuascaon known as the Hoasca Project, and the film’s accomplished director Sarah Hutt, whose Emmy nominated documentary work has appeared on Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel
MSNBC.
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Yesterday Last Year (2017) — NYC Premiere
Director: Jeff Hanley
Run Time/Country: 90 min, Canada
Synopsis: A love triangle gets even more complicated once a time machine enters the picture.
Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
The Wanderers: The Quest of The Demon Hunter (2017) — USA Premiere
Director: Dragos Buliga
Run Time/Country: 90 min, Romania
Synopsis: A vampire hunter and a reporter investigate mysterious circumstances at a castle in Transylvania. Starring Primetime Emmy Award winner Armand Assante (Gotti).
Special Guest Appearance:
Actor Armand Assante will be in attendance for the screening of The Wanderers: The Quest of The Demon Hunter.
Time: 9:30pm – 12:00am
Black Wake (2018) — World Premiere
Director: Jeremiah Kipp
Run Time/Country: 120 min, USA
Synopsis: Specialists gather in a top-secret facility to investigate a series of strange deaths on beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and examine video evidence to uncover a possible parasitic explanation for the fatalities. When a determined detective sends one of the scientists the crazed writings of a mysterious homeless man, she slowly learns that the actual threat may be more dangerous – and far older – than anyone ever imagined. Starring Nana Gouvea (The Fever), Golden Globe Award nominee Tom Sizemore (Witness Protection), Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), Screen Actors Guild Award winner Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos)
Jonny Beauchamp (Penny Dreadful)
Chuck Zito (Oz). Inspired by the cosmic horror of genre writer H.P. Lovecraft.
Special Guest Panel:
Actors Nana Gouvea, Tom Sizemore, Vincent Pastore, Jonny Beauchamp and Chuck Zito will be in attendance for a post-film discussion of Black Wake.
LOCATION B:
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106)
Block 12: Feature Film
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
The Child Remains (2017) — NYC Premiere
Director: Michael Melski
Run Time/Country: 120 min, Canada
Synopsis: An expectant couple’s intimate weekend turns to terror as they discover their secluded country inn is a haunted maternity home where infants and mothers were murdered. Starring Suzanne Clément (Mommy), Allan Hawco (Frontier), Shelley Thompson (Labyrinth) and Géza Kovács(Scanners).
Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003)Block 13: International Animation and Fantasy
Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm
Retimer (2017)
Director: Robin Tremblay
Run Time/Country: 8 min, Canada
Synopsis: In the year 3020, war, poverty and diseases are no longer a part of daily life. A world order whose roots go back to antiquity have learned to control time use its power to create a perfect society. They do this by sending agents in the past, the Retimer, who are tasked to modify specific events and through ripple in times, create the perfect future they live in. One member of this elite team begins to question the ethics of his action through the canvas of time.
The Time Traveller (2018)
Director: Jonathan Nolan
Run Time/Country: 15 min, Australia
Synopsis: Based on and expanding the “The Time Machine” novella by H.G. Wells and incorporating work by H.P. Lovecraft and Nikolai Tesla, the story follows the ongoing adventures of a traveller in time and occasionally space.
Siren (2015)
Director: George Fleming
Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
Synopsis: An astronaut on patrol crosses paths with a visitor who leads him on a game of cat and mouse.
Niggun (2017)
Director: Yoni Salmon
Run Time/Country: 12 min, Israel
Synopsis: After a long journey through space the last two believers are about to reach their destination. Ananda, the space archaeologist, hopes to prove that Earth is not a myth and that all mankind did originate from the same tiny blue planet – but mostly he wants to prove his colleagues and his father wrong and to make the biggest discovery in history.
Astronaut of Featherweight (2017)
Director: Dalibor Baric
Run Time/Country: 27 min, Croatia
Synopsis: From space spa colonies to alien plantations, everybody is forced to take care of their bodies in this dark vision of a hyper-capitalist trans-human society in which body is a commodity and money is immortality.
The Intelligence: The Counterattack of Robots (2017)
Director: Suisei Hoshii
Run Time/Country: 20 min, Japan
Synopsis: In a near future where earth is polluted by nuclear waste and cities have fallen, robots depict further crisis facing the planet.
Fraktaal (2017)
Director: Julius Horsthuis
Run Time/Country: 4 min, Netherlands
Synopsis: A fantasy science fiction short – without a story.
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Re/Collection (2017)
Director: Eva Konstantopoulos, Deborah Correa
Run Time/Country: 18 min, USA
Synopsis: In a world where technology has made memory a commodity, a desperate husband seeks out a risky procedure to save the love of his life.
Trouble Creek (2017)
Director: Stacey K. Black
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: There’s something in the water in the small town of Trouble Creek – human bones. As the local sheriff delves into the mystery of the bones the townspeople must face themselves, new temptations, old family secrets, and the sinister and the town’s mysterious past. Starring Jason Gedrick (Iron Eagle), Dean Cameron (Summer School) and Debrah Farentino (Eureka).
They’re Made Out Of Meat (2017)
Director: Jason Housecroft
Run Time/Country: 12 min, UK
Synopsis: Alien visitors are appalled to find that the inhabitants of planet earth are made out of meat.
The Tolls (2017)
Director: Liz Anderson
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: In the final days of WWII while mourning the loss of his wife at sea, a corporal confronts a mysterious stranger who has infiltrated his base. The intruder possesses a top secret S.S. technology which transports them to a Nazi occupied San Francisco. Here, he will put the lives of millions at risk in order to reunite with his lost love.
Ghostcode (2017)
Director: Patrick Defasten
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Germany
Synopsis: Advancements in sonic warfare lead to a net-born artificial intelligence.
The Hard Sell (2016)
Director: Tim Hunt, Adrian Pinsent
Run Time/Country: 6 min, UK
Synopsis: Exploring the question about what would one do with a 10 second rewind wrapped around their wrist.
In Passing (2017)
Director: Bittnarie Shin
Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA
Synopsis: Elderly ex-lovers are brought back together when their mutual friend passes away.
Mimesis (2017)
Director: Patrick Lee
Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
Synopsis: Nothing is what it seems in the cycling of the natural world.
Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Cyborgs Among Us (2017) — East Coast Premiere
Director: Rafel Duran Torrent
Run Time/Country: 76 min, Spain/Denmark/France/Germany/S
Synopsis: Cyborgs are human beings with electronic devices implanted in their bodies to extend their senses and/or enhance their physical and cognitive capabilities. Technology with the potential for human enhancement is already available, but its use is strictly restricted to remedial (medical) applications. However, the first cyborgs are already crossing the boundaries of their human limits just for the sake of it – at home, in basement workshops and tattoo parlors, using low-tech equipment and with a do-it-yourself attitude. They are a tiny minority, seen by many as weird or crazy experimenters, but in the near future we may be calling them pioneers. This film explores life as a cyborg through the stories of a few current ones and how close scientists are to taking the leap. The film will consider the philosophical, ethical and legal implications of going beyond human by letting machines become part of us.
Post-Film Panel:
The screening will be followed by an in-depth discussion with modern day cyborgs from Grindhouse Wetware, a biotech startup in Pittsburgh that enhances human capabilities through augmentation and develops initiatives for biohackers.
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
The Walking Dead: March to War – Trailer (2017)
Director: Hugo Guerra
Run Time/Country: 1 min, UK
Synopsis: The trailer for Disrupter Beam’s The Walking Dead game was created in a very stylized way. Each and every shot carefully crafted, zombies motion captured, 3D animation mixed with 2D – all layered with a comic book painting effect.
Dead House (2017)
Director: Travis Laidlaw
Run Time/Country: 13 min, Canada
Synopsis: Two men renovating a mysterious old house attempt to leave before the building enters lockdown and seals them inside. Unfortunately, the house has different plans for them.
Eve (2017)
Director: Marcello Mottola
Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA
Synopsis: Eve, a young teenage girl is abducted and hidden away in a new city. She becomes captivated with an ominous house across the street and a mysterious young girl that astonishingly appears to be her identical twin. Eve becomes seduced by the cryptic house acquiring its incarnate power and finds redemption against evil with the help of her own begotten design.
A Forest (2017)
Director: Thomas Geffrier
Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
Synopsis: A young woman meets a couple in a private party. Leaving with them, she finds herself trapped in some sort of twilight zone from which she cannot escape.
Occam’s Razor (2016)
Director: Alex Parslow
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: Set in 1851, a postmortem photographer is called into a small community where dozens of children have mysteriously died. He soon realizes the spirits of the deceased are trying to communicate to him, leading him to uncover the town’s dark and twisted secret.
Impuratus (2017)
Director: Michael Yurinko
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: A police detective in circa 1917 is called to a remote mental hospital to witness the death-bed confession of a mysterious Civil War Vet that forces him to believe in the supernatural. Starring Holt Boggs (The Leftovers), John Savage (The Deer Hunter) and Saturn Award nominee Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial).
Sounds of Freedom (2017)
Director: Holly Chadwick
Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
Synopsis: Two veterans, one of the Iraq War and one of the Vietnam War, both suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. From their jobs at the local newspaper and through a series of flashbacks and sessions with a common therapist, they are challenged to the max when a serial killer strikes at home.
Ovum (2017)
Director: Luciano Blotta
Run Time/Country: 17 min, Argentina
Synopsis: When a reclusive fisherman finds a giant egg on his desolate beach and takes it home, his life takes a big turn for better or worse.
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Adam: Episode 2 (2017)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run Time/Country: 7 min, Canada
Synopsis: In the second chapter of the Adam film series previously screened at the festival, the titular amnesiac hero discovers a clue about what and who he is.
Adam: Episode 3 (2017)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Canada
Synopsis: In the third chapter of the Adam film series previously screened at the festival, a new tribe of human survivors face a post-apocalyptic world.
Zygote (2017)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada
Synopsis: Stranded in an arctic mine, two lone survivors are forced to fight for their lives, evading and hiding from a new kind of terror. Starring Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam).
Firebase (2017)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run Time/Country: 27 min, Canada
Synopsis: Set during the Vietnam war, an American soldier enters into an ever-deepening web of science fiction madness.
Rakka (2017)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada
Synopsis: The story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak harrowing and unrelenting, the humans we meet must find enough courage to go on fighting. Starring Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver (Aliens).
Time: 8:30pm – 9:00pm
Guests and filmmakers will be in attendance when awards are presented to the category winners as The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival concludes.
