Escape Velocity 2019 Film Festival Line-Up

As I mentioned before, I'm lucky enough to be Head Judge once again for the Museum of Science Fiction's annual Film Festival this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. This fest is part of the Escape Velocity event at Washington, DC's National Harbor - Marriott Gaylord, across from the Potomac from historic Old Town Alexandra. Here's a rundown of the films in the competition, listed in chronological order of screening:

>>>>>>>>>>Friday, May 24, 2019

Film: Atomic Dialogues (feature film)
Showtime: Friday May 24, 2019 11:00am - 1:00pm 



Synopsis:
An original scientific Italian road movie, Atomic Dialogues is a delicate and earnest declaration of love to Italian science. A "scientific comedy" of sorts, it is a quest for knowledge in the land of contemporary physics in which the director himself uses his own cameraman, the young, underpaid, and reluctant Nicola, as a guinea pig to demonstrate that even hard topics like quantum mechanics and general relativity can be explained to anyone, even those convinced to be incapable of understanding or, even worse, who don't want to know.

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Film: ANYA (feature film)
Showtime: Friday May 24, 2019 1:00pm - 3:00pm


Synopsis:
ANYA is a love story set in contemporary NYC about a couple and the scientist who discovers the reason they can't conceive: the husband and his secretive people are different species of humans. Together they must decide whether having a baby through gene editing is worth the cost.

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Film: BELiEVE (short film)
Showtime: Shorts Block 1 - Friday, May 24 • 3:00pm - 4:30pm


Synopsis: A boy believes he has been contacted by aliens and sets out to prove it.

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Film: Streetlights of the Universe (short film)
Showtime: Shorts Block 1 - Friday, May 24 • 3:00pm - 4:30pm



Synopsis:
Astronomers prepare to probe the mysteries of dark energy by assembling the largest ever 3D map of the universe.

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Film:  Keystroke (short film)
Showtime: Shorts Block 1 - Friday, May 24 • 3:00pm - 4:30pm



Synopsis: Two roommates clean up their new apartment after the previous tenant – a hoarder – and find a computer with a journal of all history that they can edit in any way they please.

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Film: Katrina's Dream (feature film)
Showtime: Friday May 24, 2019 11:00pm - Saturday May 25, 2019 1:00am 



Synopsis: Katrina wishes to have children but her boyfriend Louis doesn’t. She falls in love with his best friend Ron, who becomes the man of her life. One night, returning drunk together from a birthday party, the two friends are involved in a car accident in which Ron loses his head and Louis his body. Thanks to a head transplant the two men survive, merged into one person. Katrina must now deal with the body and mind of two men to fulfill her dream.

>>>>>>>>>>Saturday, May 25, 2019

Film: Occupants (feature film)
Showtime: Saturday May 25, 2019 10:00pm - Sunday May 26, 2019 12:00am 



Synopsis: "Occupants" is a film about Annie Curtis, an award-winning documentarian, and her husband, Neil. Annie and Neil embark on a '30 Days of Clean Living' documentary, setting up cameras all over their house to document, via the Internet, their new eating habits. By doing so, half of their cameras capture a parallel version of themselves - a version that ultimately unravels and threatens their very existence.

>>>>>>>>>>Saturday, May 25, 2019

Film: Transgeek (feature film)
Showtime: Sunday May 26, 2019 11:00am - 1:00pm 



Synopsis: "TransGeek" is about making a place for transgender people to tell their own stories in their own voices. The film uses in-depth interviews conducted over a period of several years to explore the lives, hobbies, politics, careers, and thoughts of transgender geeks, and features an original score composed by Zoë Blade, a British electronic musician and transgender woman.

>>>>>>>>>>Sunday, May 26, 2019

Film: The Indies: An Animated Short (short film)
Showtime: Shorts Block 2 - Sunday May 26, 2019 1:00pm - 3:00pm 
N.B. Due to thematic and visual content, the EV Film Staff would rate the films in this block PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned - some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.


Synopsis: Funded through Kickstarter and created by first time director, DJ Tony Drake, The Indies: An Animated Short looks to challenge how audiences view the fluidity of good vs evil, and the forces that pull us back and forth across that thin gray line. The film draws inspiration from two worlds that, at first glance, could not be more different: modern day Hip-Hop and the Wild West. The characters are revealed through intense action sequences whose dynamic can change from one moment to the next. This ultimately challenges the audience to decide who they perceive to be heroes and who they perceive to be villains. The Indies: An Animated Short is part of a larger upcoming full length series and an accompanying EP soundtrack.

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Film: Virtually (short film)
Showtime: Shorts Block 2 - Sunday May 26, 2019 1:00pm - 3:00pm 
N.B. Due to thematic and visual content, the EV Film Staff would rate the films in this block PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned - some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.



Synopsis: A woman struggling to survive alone in a post-apocalyptic wasteland discovers a virtual-reality machine and escapes from her loneliness into a scenic virtual world. When she falls in love with a man inside this virtual world, she must choose between her love and her life in this romantic science fiction short film.

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The Award Ceremony for the Escape Velocity 2019 Film Festival is on Saturday May 25, 2019 5:00pm - 7:30pm.

In addition to the films in the competition, there's plenty of other films being screened including the DUST short film series, Prospect, ALIEN universe short films, cool documentaries, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and, of course, the original theatical version of Star Wars (1977) - complete with commentary by Star Wars experts including yours truly! Check out the full EV19 schedule.

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