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UBIK is a selection of short films in which authors experiment new narrative systems.

B –     I was starting to think you’d never call me.
J –     I had some problems.
B –     There are too many people here. Try not to look my way and just read the newspaper.
J –     Don’t worry. Tell me about the machine, how are things going?
B –    The machine’s ready, it’s just a matter of hours.
J –     I don’t believe it, I left them a year ago with a lot of stuff to fix. Excessive absorption problems, latencies…
B –     Latencies? It’s been a while since they fixed that, they fixed it with the condenser in Honk Kong and now it’s ready.
J –     What does Evans say?
B –     Evans says you deserve it, that he can’t wait to push that button.
J –     Evans is crazy.
B –      Crazy or not, in a couple of hours this city won’t exist anymore, or at least not the way we see it right now. And you’ll be dead by this evening, or you’ll become something else, something that has yet to be named…
J –     …
B –     What are you going to do now?
J –     I think I’ll have a Martini.
B –     Good bye
J –     Good bye

Is it possible to transform reality into an image, dreams into memories, fascination into representation? We are not sure about it, but if somebody out there wanted to give it a try, they could start from here, choosing UBIK as the starting line (and the finish line, too) for their research, a perfect system to test one’s visual machine.

The selected shorts
by Claudia Praolini – Concorto Film Festival

UPDATING DEATH by Carsten Aschmann, Germany/UK, 2017
THE DOCKWORKER’S DREAM by Bill Morrison, Portugal, 2016
KITTEN INSTINCT by Liesbeth Eeckman, Belgium, 2016
FOR REAL THO by Baptist Penetticobra, France, 2016
ELLE, LA MAISON ET LE CHAT (She, the house and the cat) by Sofía Géldrez, France/Chile, 2017
CONDRONG by Gonçalo Almeida, UK, 2016