A Sci-Fi look into the INTERNAL STRUGGLE of the mind

This category tackles something that everyone that has gone through which is the internal struggle of battling between good or bad, reality and illusion. In the extreme and fantastical scenarios shown in this subsection of this film festival, we explore the full extent of fighting your own mind to be able to make judgement calls.

By definition when you look up what an internal struggle is you get this answer ‘Internal conflict happens when a character struggles with something within themselves. These two contradicting wants, needs or desires help to build a character’.  Now when  applied with a touch of Sci-Fi you get struggles and possibilities of conflict that may have been beyond your imagination, which is what makes this categories especially interesting to watch and reflect on with pushing the boundaries of your own comfort, by exposing you to points of view that you might not have ever reflected on before which will cause you to look with in and asses your own morals and opinions.

The film “Spoon” by Victor Velasco could be interpreted as an episode related to a memory affecting condition from the point of view of the diseased. This is a unique point of view that give insight on how real memories can appear to be. as well as what disassociating from reality into your our mind can be like and how much of a struggle it can be to focus on something that will make you able to bring your consciousness back into reality. As Ray the protagonist of this short film’s confusion caused by the repetition of the word soup and the giant floating spoon on his walk to work on a Monday morning (at about 1:43) that got him to slowly pull himself back into the room in which his kids where trying to get him to eat. ‘Man’s memory shapes its own Eden within’ Jorge Luis Borges.

“UTransfer” by Giogio Miraflor is an observation on the pressures of society and the internal battles it can cause. With the offer to have your memories your consciousness uploaded to the ‘new world’ a utopian place for only the selected US Citizens that pass the tests, Dean Flores embarks on a journey to make himself seem worthy in the view of the test makers. He battles with his own desires and morals and impulses and suppressing them as much as he can to be able to fit in with what the ideal citizen should be. Dean is seen meditating and studying his own life to be able to answer all the questions on this test to perfection because every time he fails 10% of his memories are erased as a consequence we observe him take said test a 4^th time with the pressure of him being evicted from his apartment and the desire to reach the ‘new world’ be at a high as he is regarded as not much more then an immigrant with a criminal record all alone in the physical world.

“Back the way we came” by Joshua Gravitt and Anthony Alyassi shows us how different external factors can cause internal struggles. In this film two friends are taken form timeline to timeline of alternate realities and we see how both of them struggle mentally with what’s happening to them differently. The more dominate personality of the two friends slowly starts accepting his fate, while the more quiet of the two even though seen as the submissive personality of the two is the one that refused to give in and becomes more assertive in face of the circumstance and pushes to find a way back to their reality. The drive to be ‘home’ or somewhere familiar and ‘safe’ pushed him mentally to go beyond his comfort zone to achieve his goal. Where as the previously more dominant one became over run by the fear of things being even worse that he became willing to submit and accept a reality different from his own.

“Bodyhackers” by TL Westgate viewed into how much our mental identity is tied to our physical bodies. When removed for the comfort of our physical bodies and appearance the mental struggle this father daughter duo went through was almost comical. Even when confronted with the possibility of being stuck in a familiar body, mentally it was still not comfortable enough because of the strong connection to ones looks and physical being.

“Catamorphis” by Madeline Hombert depicts individuals that believe are someone or something else on the inside other then what they were born as.

“Deep Learning” by Andrew Laudone and Shane Swearingen created a world where sophisticated AI-driven program has completely replaced film and television in every American home with custom on-demand videos featuring an exact likeness of the viewer. This ended up showing viewers things one would rather not see. Deeper feelings/urges were being brought to light. Feelings that would normally get surprised, hidden from society. The protagonist was getting upset with these depictions of herself and was even trying to rid the service overall. What she saw of herself made her upset and was in denial of those feelings that was shown to her.