Season 4
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Elliot King is Third by Rose Troche In 2024, gender is identified by microchip implant, and trans people like Elliot are classified “third.” But can he change his identity in an attempt to build a safer life?
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Refuge by Mohammad Gorjestani A cyber attack on the United States Immigration database puts Sonia at risk of being deported back to Iran. But remaining in the U.S. may come at a greater price than she’s willing to pay.
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Promised Land by Joe Turner Lin & Justin Marshall Refugees from the dystopian future are immigrating to the past, and citizen watch groups have formed to stop them. On his first “border patrol”, teenage Jackson must choose between his father’s principles and his own sense of humanity.
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Return to Elektra Springs by Christopher Munch Retired inventor Will Friedrich and his son are forced to evacuate their home during a tsunami. As they make their way east, they encounter a pioneering community that leads Will to consider returning to his work in free energy.
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The Living by Julian Breece Organ Harvesting Initiative surgeon Isaac North visits a Colorado refugee town where quadriplegic Luther Hillman has signed up to be euthanized in return for his family's medical care, his organs harvested for more “productive” citizens.
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Hollow by Lisa Robinson The web is no longer secure, but NeuroLock™ can encrypt data using the human brain. Iris struggles to choose between unemployment and a job as a “neuro-messenger,” a career with unwanted side effects.
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Children of the Northern Lights by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean Two astronauts on a prospecting mission to find a new supply of energy crash land on a distant planet, where alien beings offer a chance at survival – but at a great cost.
Season 3
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Laura Keller - NB by Mo Perkins With global population at an extreme high, federal fertility lotteries now determine who can and can’t reproduce. When one woman learns that she will be permanently sterilized, her faith in the system is shaken.
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Crossover by Tina Mabry In a future where schools are segregated by economic status, a struggling mother must decide whether to sell her own organs to give her children a better education.
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Gunny by Patrick Stettner A young female soldier returns home after a traumatic tour of duty, taking a new medication that can selectively erase memories.
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Charlie 13 by Michael McMillian On the eve of his 13th birthday, will Charlie Tuttle submit to a government-mandated tracking implant, or answer a more dangerous call to adventure?
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The 6th World by Nanobah Becker Navajo Astronaut Tazbah Redhouse is a pilot on the first spaceship sent to colonize Mars. But a mysterious dream the night before her departure indicates there may be more to her mission than she understands.
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Advantageous by Jennifer Phang Gwen is the spokesperson for a radical technology allowing people to overcome their natural disadvantages and begin life anew. But when her job and family are in crisis, will she undergo the procedure herself?
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Life Begins at Rewirement by Trevin Matcek Simon Ender struggles with his decision to commit his elderly mother into a revolutionary nursing home alternative that has solved the rapidly growing Senior Citizen overpopulation.
Season 2
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The Dig by Bennett Cohen As the world faces environmental collapse, a group of archaeologists venture into a toxic desert wasteland, determined to unearth a lost civilization. Can this ancient disaster help them avert their own ruin?
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Spring of Sorrow by Suzi Yoonessi Two sisters live a nomadic life, displaced by global warming. Trapped in the desert in the midst of a water shortage, Isabelle tells her younger sister Lily a fairytale that explains how this tragedy came to be.
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Remigration by Barry Jenkins In a future San Francisco that is entirely upper-class, the city starts a program to bring working-class families back to the city that pushed them out. When one such family returns, it must decide whether to stay.
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Digital Antiquities by JP Chan In 2036, all digital media is permanently stored in “the cloud.” Data recovery store employee Cat, and Kai — a young man with an old compact disc — discover a secret that will unite them forever.
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White by A. Sayeeda Clarke It’s another 120-degree December day in New York City. With no money to pay for medical care for his pregnant wife, Bato races against the sun to save his family.
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Exposure by Mia Trachinger In a world where people are employed as live body contagions to immunize urban populations, an unvaccinated man resists being inoculated.
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Asparagus by Robby Henson In a regimented greenhouse laboratory, an isolated agricultural engineer named Dekard learns lessons about life and love from a fertilizer delivery agent and a renegade asparagus.
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Worker Drone by Sharat Raju At GlobeCom India, where he provides technical assistance to customers calling in from America, Rahul’s days blend together. But an office showdown offers him a rare chance to leave his dungeon-like home in Technology City.
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That Which Once Was by Kimi Takesue AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER! In 2032, an 8-year-old Caribbean boy, displaced by global warming, fends for himself as an environmental refugee in a hostile Northern metropolis and forms an unexpected friendship with an Inuk ice carver.
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Beholder by Nisha Ganatra Sasha, a resident of the socially conservative gated community Red Estates, makes a discovery about her genetically engineered unborn child that causes her to rethink her allegiances.
Season 1
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The Other Side by Amyn Kaderali A family struggles to escape a stark economic wasteland in hopes of immigrating illegally to a new land of opportunity.
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PIA by Tanuj Chopra When a woman in mourning encounters a mysterious wandering service android, she is forced to redefine its conceptions of humanity, relationships, and family.
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Fallout by Ben Rekhi Los Angeles has fallen victim to a nuclear attack from an unknown aggressor. In the aftermath of the bombing, a young man’s search for his girlfriend highlights the human toll of eternal war.
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Seed by Hugo Perez In an industry dominated by genetically modified seeds, a poor farmer struggles to survive. When he resorts to smuggling now-illegal organic seeds across borders he risks everything.
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Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker.
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Silver Sling by Tze Chun In the polarized economy of the near future, corporations offer incentives to their high-ranking female employees to pay for surrogate pregnancies and chemically accelerated births.
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Tia & Marco by Annie J. Howell When a pregnant border patrol agent discovers an illegal immigrant child hiding in her home, she is forced to question her loyalty to a system of exclusion.
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The Rise by Garret Williams In the radically altered housing market of the future, an older couple must forego their dreams of retirement and adapt to the ever-evolving definition of the American dream.
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Play by David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman Society’s obsession with video and online gaming has advanced to the point that virtual environments are indistinguishable from physical ones.
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Mister Green by Greg Pak In this parable about change, a jaded government undersecretary becomes the unwitting test subject for an experimental program to curb global warming.
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Tent City by Aldo Velasco In a world where housing is granted only to the powerful few, a father who makes his living evicting the powerless must choose between his responsibilities and his moral principles.
Jillc27: #futurestates love it
8:51 PM on June 10, 2013
FuturestatesTV: Be riveted by FUTURESTATES Season 4, as the best indie filmmakers take on the most compelling issues of the future http://t.co/aoQwqoxuUt
5:26 PM on June 7, 2013
FuturestatesTV: 2 astronauts search for new energy in space. Aliens offer chance at survival but at great cost-http://t.co/0RvKkN9H4R http://t.co/ZQ4nmRqlLU
10:21 AM on June 6, 2013
FuturestatesTV: 2098: Meitarnium becomes the sole source of fuel on Earth and all of its colonies. Watch it here http://t.co/0RvKkN9H4R
12:02 PM on June 5, 2013
the_karachi_kid: How far would you go to save the one you love the most? #Futurestates http://t.co/YC7fUyoNbb
9:47 AM on June 5, 2013
Watch all 7 riveting episodes of FUTURESTATES Season 4, as the best independent filmmakers in public television take on the most compelling issues of the not-too-distant-future- the brain, healthcare, energy, resource distribution, gender, immigration and more. Enjoy! http://bit.ly/19PY169 More »
1:47 PM on June 7, 2013
Two astronauts search for a new supply of energy on a distant planet, where alien beings offer a chance at survival – but at a great cost. Watch now http://bit.ly/19J9OmW More »
10:24 AM on June 6, 2013
2098: Meitarnium becomes the sole source of fuel on Earth and all of its colonies. Watch "Children Of The Northern Lights" now http://bit.ly/19J9OmW More »
11:34 AM on June 5, 2013
"Hollow came out of thoughts I had about my everyday internet experience, in which data seems to stream into my brain as if through an intravenous drip." Lisa Robinson on their film "Hollow"-- watch now: http://bit.ly/133qQbE "I open my laptop and suddenly email, web searches, random advertising, and social networking all roar in, filling my mental space like a noisy highway and leaving less and less space for fragile developing thoughts and fleeting memories. It’s essentially reshaping my brain’s transactions and, one could argue, ultimately changing who I am. I obsessed over this idea, this web brain experience, and it tumbled forward, shaping into a character named Iris, a young woman who is trying to survive in a future world where this kind of data exposure is peaking. I imagined the future web as more aggressive and personal, having lost most of its anonymity and privacy. This felt like a small stretch from today, as our growing dependence on the web will almost certainly be paired with challenges to its overall security. Corporate and government surveillance will expand, as well as tracking and profiling systems. As all prosthetic devices (computers, cell phones, etc.) become vulnerable to hacking, powerful interests will find other ways to secretly move information. I was irresistibly drawn to this imaginary future with new industries, new opportunities, and unlikely “heroes.” As scientific understanding of the brain will progress, Hollow extrapolates that technologies will enable us to erase and introduce detailed information. This individual encryption may be the last respite of anonymity. “Neuro?messengers” will function like “data mules,” a futuristic parallel to drug mules. Young unemployed women will find themselves becoming data transport vessels and selling their brains in order to survive. Iris is exploited, partially because of her economic and immigrant status, to become a “neuro-messenger.” But despite this tragic setup, Iris kept reminding me of her youth, her resilience, and her choice. I became intrigued with figuring out how to honor this loss and gain, respecting her compromise, and seeing within this big picture, one woman’s small but powerful choice to secure and create her own future. She may be a pawn in the hands of powerful interests, but she is a victor in her own personal survival. That dichotomy seemed compelling and real to me." More »
10:20 AM on May 31, 2013
As more countries put money into mapping the brain, you may soon be able to get a job as a “neuro-messenger.” Watch now: http://bit.ly/133qQbE More »
12:38 PM on May 30, 2013