Arts & Entertainment

Would You Want to Be Brought Back to Life?

A new short film by Sonoma County filmmakers looks at the implications of cryogenics and beliefs about mortality and identity

 

Imagine being frozen after death, then being revived with the help of medical technology.

How do you integrate into a society where everything is unfamiliar and where your family and friends are long gone?

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That’s premise of a new film by two Sonoma County filmmakers, including Petaluma resident Don Lewis, known for films such as “Worst in Show” about the Ugliest Dog Contest, and “The Violent Kind” a sci-fi/horror film that premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Lewis, and writer/director John Harden, a Santa Rosa resident who has broadcast his work on PBS and am film festivals around the country, are self-financing the film and have already raised $14,600. But they won’t get a penny unless they manage to raise $22,000 over the next nine days.

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The film is called NEW and centers around a couple who pay thousands of dollars to have their bodies stored in liquid nitrogen in hopes of being brought back to life in some distant future.

The 12-minute film will explore beliefs about mortality and identity, the characters' attitudes about their current lives, and their plans to live another.

Funds will help pay actors, for costumes, props, set construction, original music, special effects, and post-production.

“In writing NEW, I feel I've managed to hit a sweet spot between the visionary science fiction that fired my imagination as a kid, and the character-driven storytelling that makes sense to me now,” wrote Harden in his online pitch on USA Projects, a crowd funding site that allows donors to write off their donations.

“I'm thrilled to be making this film and feel it will be unlike anything I've done before.”

To watch a trailer and read more about the project, click here.


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