Futurestates
Season 2
Imagining tomorrow's America today, "Futurestates" is a series of independent mini-features--short narrative films created by established filmmakers and emerging talents transforming today's complex social issues into visions about what life in America will be like in decades to come.
Where to Watch Season 2
10 Episodes
- RemigrationE2
RemigrationWritten and directed by Barry Jenkins Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again? - Asparagus
E3AsparagusWritten and directed by Robby Henson Introverted and cerebral, Dekard is an agricultural engineer who monitors a regimented greenhouse laboratory that produces hybrid asparagus, sealed off in a transparent control booth buried beneath a destroyed landscape in the near future. When fertilizer delivery agent Elena Navarro arrives for a surprise visit, Dekard accidentally knocks an inferior asparagus he is culling to the lab floor in his rush to spend more time with Elena. After a trip to a dating compatibility center forecasts Elena and Dekard's romantic future, he returns to his greenhouse to find an unlikely testament from his forgotten asparagus. - Spring of SorrowE4
Spring of SorrowIn this environmentally barren and hardscrabble future, teenage Isabel desperately offers hope to her eight-year-old sister Lily, by telling a fairy tale allegorically explaining how this tragic world came to be and its possible salvation by finding the "spring of sorrow." - Digital AntiquitiesE5
Digital AntiquitiesWritten and directed by J.P. Chan By 2036, data loss has become a thing of the past. All digital media is instantly uploaded to the internet and permanently stored in the cloud, safely backed-up on servers scattered around the world. Only a handful of small businesses in the world have the expertise to recover data from pre-cloud devices. On a hot summer day, a young man named Kai visits Digital Antiquities, a store in eastern Pennsylvania specializing in data recovery and sales of vintage electronics. He shows Cat, the store's only employee, an old compact disc left to him from his deceased mother and asks her to recover its contents. Will Cat help him find a working CD reader? And what will they discover among the contents of the disc? - ExposureE6
ExposureWritten and directed by Mia Trachinger Roxanne Green catches a shuttle to her first job of the day: a live-body contagion for the government, used to immunize urban populations. Jesse Cho, an anti-contagion activist, is flirting with co-worker Nicole when his office is breeched by Roxanne's team. Led by Roxanne, the contagions try to contain the workers inside the building, chasing them down in an attempt to mass-inoculate. Despite the government declaring a successful vaccination rate, why don't Jesse and Nicole feel so healthy? Caught in a cycle of fear and illness, they soon learn that there are no easy answers. - The DigE7
The DigWritten and directed by Bennett Cohen Set in a future world on the verge of environmental collapse, a group of archaeologists venture into a toxic desert wasteland, determined to unearth a lost civilization they believe suffered a similar fate and hoping that this ancient disaster holds clues that can help avert their own ruin. But can they survive the desert long enough to do the work they need to do, and unearth the discoveries they desperately need to find? In their digging, they make at least two discoveries they don't expect: the power of love, and a curious notion they come to know as "faith." - WhiteE8
WhiteIt's another sweltering 120-degree winter day with five more days to Christmas and hot is the only season left in New York City. Global warming has become a tangible threat to survival and everyone is creating new ways to protect themselves from the sun. Bato, an expecting father enters into a race against the sun, the birth, and his own identity to save his family as he is forced to sell the new currency of this world. - Worker DroneE9
Worker DroneWritten and directed by Sharat Raju Rahul's days blend together. GlobeCom India, his employer, specializes in remote systems operation. When Rahul leaves his dungeon-like GlobeCom office, he goes to his dungeon-like living quarters in Technology City. But things change when an American contractor announces a new partnership with GlobeCom -- Planet Dogstar, a massive multi-player online flying combat simulator where players shoot down targets on an alien planet. GlobeCom is hired to operate and manage the game. To decide who will lead and manage the operation, the company organizes an office showdown: whoever shoots down the most targets wins the promotion as well as a one-week furlough to leave Technology City. Can Rahul beat his coworkers to win the game? - That Which Once WasE10
That Which Once WasWritten and directed by Kimi Takesue In the year 2032, Vicente, an 8-year-old Caribbean boy, has been displaced by global warming and fends for himself as an environmental refugee in a hostile Northern metropolis. Orphaned and without connection to family or friends, Vicente now lives in a children's shelter on the fringes of the city, and struggles with anxiety, rage, and disturbing memories of the tragedy he fled. On a hot summer day, Vicente sits outside the shelter and sees a mysterious man smashing large chunks of ice against the pavement. Thus begins an unexpected friendship between Vicente and Siku, the ice carver: two people from different worlds who have both experienced tremendous loss. Through their bond, Siku ultimately helps Vicente confront his past and understand the value of memory.