half-light
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Erin O'Connor
Genres: drama, experimental, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
In 2027, the government enforces a revolutionary law that disables all tech devices at sundown to enhance civilians' well-being. We follow a 20-year-old named Einstein through one day in this post-screen world.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most digital-detox sci-fi gets preachy. This one builds its dystopia out of fake interviews and ambient dusk, which is a much more interesting crime.
Building speculative law through mock-journalistic interviews — speculative fiction rendered as ambient documentary rather than dystopian spectacle — is genuinely uncommon and I'm here for it. O'Connor and the soft-edged-near-future register meet well.
Speculative tech-off-at-sundown 2027 law built through mock-journalistic interviews and ambient near-future rather than dystopian spectacle — that's a genuinely fresh structural choice for short sci-fi. The cemetery-stop detail is a sign of real attention.