Nine Minutes. Cortometraje de ciencia ficción de Ernie Gilbert
2017 · 13m · Estados Unidos
Directed by Ernie Gilbert
Genres: drama, sci-fi, thriller
Tones: contemplative, tense
In the near future, Lilian, an experienced astronaut, and her artificial intelligence explore a newly discovered planet; after weeks of research, a malfunction during the return launch forces Lilian to choose between surviving and completing the mission.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's competent sci-fi melodrama—astronaut, AI, moral dilemma, the usual calculus—but Gilbert doesn't interrogate any of it hard enough to make the premise actually *weird*. The tension is earned, sure, but it's the tension everyone expects from this setup.
A cleanly executed survival-ethics scenario that understands its debt to the psychological sci-fi lineage; the restraint in production design and the measured pacing show a filmmaker aware of what minimalism can do in 13 minutes.
That final choice to stay with the AI rather than abort—the way Gilbert lets the silence after the decision land without manipulation—is the whole film, and it works because of one unflinching camera hold that trusts the performer to do nothing but be present.