Well, rather than me telling you what it is about, here is the press release about The Garden...
New York City, December 1, 2014
Musk’s prescient proclamation
inspired a couple—in life and in cinema—to ponder: how does the ceaseless
advent of technology shape and guide our lives and are we truly going to
innovate ourselves extinct? Having worked on two feature films framed by
visions of haywire environment of the future, Natalia and Dmitry Iyudin decided
to write a short movie about a post-singularity world ruled by rogue AI.
The story is set in
2089 when Earth is a hostile place for humans who by then are an out-of-date
concept. The only way to survive is to integrate into AI constructs at The
Garden and live pain-free forever. Yet Luc—a rebellious ballerina—would rather
die than conform. But when she meets an odd robot Azul, the idea of integrating
into a better version of herself suddenly sounds tempting.
What’s unique about
the story is that it’s a hybrid of dark humor, thriller, and sleek technology,
told from a female perspective with a fierce teenage ballerina as a protagonist.
And yet, the film has a universal appeal with its themes of defiance against a
totalitarian regime and a life-affirming right to artistic expression, free of
dogmas and censorship.
“The message of The Garden is that in order to stay real, we have to accept our own
imperfections,” Polish-American director Natalia Iyudin says.
“It’s a story about discovering your
true self and fighting for personal freedom no matter what.” Natalia’s previous work includes shorts and music videos that
screened worldwide from Oberhausen and Feminale in Germany to San Francisco,
New Orleans, and Seoul.
Natalia is a New York City based video editor
and curator. She’s worked with MoMA, National Gallery of Art, Sony Pictures
Classics, PBS, Film Society of Lincoln Center, ESSENCE Magazine, and MTV. She’s
also a member of the Film Fatales collective, alongside award-winning directors
Gillian Robespierre, Josephine Decker, Anja
Marquardt, Eliza Hittman,
and Leah Meyerhoff.
The
Garden is
collaboration between Natalia and writer Dmitry Iyudin (The Russian Heart), award-winning director Bartek Kulas (Millhaven), DP Kamil Plocki (Fourth
Dimension), and producers Marta Harasymowicz (Go East Films), Zoe Couacaud,
Heather Hollingsworth, and Hypatia Porter, as well as a
Production Designer Javiera Varas (Dallas
Buyers Club, The Dawn of The Planet
of the Apes). The film is scheduled to start production in early March.
Currently, The Garden is in the fundraising stage on KickStarter. Take a look, see what you think, and consider helping to fund this project.
Well, there it is
QaplaH!
