4.8 /10 1 Votes
92% Rotten Tomatoes Directed by James O'Brien Music by Jesse Bilson Director James O'Brien Music director Jesse Billson | 2.4/10 IMDb 1.5/5 Amazon Written by James O'Brien Cinematography Ama MacDonald Screenplay James O'Brien Story by Eric Kopatz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Produced by Eric Kopatz & James O'Brien Starring Eric Kopatz
Karen Corona
Gregory Kiem
Brando McClure Initial release 1 February 2013 (Los Angeles) Cast Eric Kopatz, Gregory Kiem, Karen Corona, Gary Kohn, Brando McClure Similar Western Religion, If The Seed Doesn't Die, Those Who Kill ‑ Shadow, The Writing on the Wall, Bindlestiffs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hyperfutura official trailer
Hyperfutura is a 2013 science fiction film from American filmmaker James O'Brien, starring Eric Kopatz, Karen Corona, Gregory Kiem, Scott Donovan, Celine Brigitte, Alysse Cobb, Lionel Heredia, Gary Kohn, Edward Romero and William Moore. It draws elements from the mashup video movement, Ed Wood, time travel and transhumanism. Utilizing both stock footage and a live action narrative, it takes the viewer on a psychedelic voyage into the subconscious of a hybrid robot human sent back in time.
Contents
The film is based on the epic poem Hyperfutura by Eric Kopatz. The screenplay is by James O'Brien. The film was edited by Brando McClure and Ron Soha, with cinematography by Ama MacDonald, visual effects by John Younger and sound design by Jesse Bilson. It has been compared to Spectres of the Spectrum by experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin, Eraserhead by David Lynch and the cinema of Andy Warhol.
This bizarre cult offering is not for everyone and its producers Kopatz & O'Brien, from the production company Coldwater Bluemoon, put out a warning to viewers to watch at their own risk. It pays homage to such counterculture works as The Church of the SubGenius and the fictional experimental filmmaker James Orin Incandenza from the David Foster Wallace novel Infinite Jest.
Hyperfutura premiered in Santa Monica, California, in July 2012 at the video store Vidiots. It was released by PanGlobal Entertainment worldwide in 2013.
Production
The film was shot in 10 days in the Southern California locations of Venice, Long Beach, Reseda and Malibu.
The lighting design and shooting technique of cinematographer Ama MacDonald was highlighted by tech magazine P3 Update in the article "Hyperfutura in High Definition."
Reception
Chris Garcia, the museum culture and art work specialist behind the visual arts podcast, Three Minute Modernist, reviewed the film cogently in the series "52 Episodes to Science Fiction Film Literacy," linking it to the works of artist Bruce Conner and the Stanley Kubrick epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the episode entitled: "Hyperfutura: Avant-Garde or Really Messed Up?"
Hyperfutura was a favorite of Chinese film critic JJ Toot Sheep who reviewed the film, known as Utopia Black Hole in China. Sheep made a number of connections to the material in his review titled: "Adam is a Smart Robot."
Cult film historian Fraser Sherman found it "pretentiously clever" and compared it to the Bar Mitzvah film seen in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
Despite its microbudget garage cinema approach, the film made The Most Popular "Time Travel" Feature Films Released in 2013. as well as the Top 50 Independent Video Rentals in iTunes.
It is also featured in The Big List of Time Travel Adventures and The Quintessential List of Time Travel Cinematic Movies.