Sci-fi shorts of John Harden: La Vie D'Un Chien, The Story of Sputnik, and New

Sci-fi shorts of John Harden: La Vie D'Un Chien, The Story of Sputnik, and New

Release Date

2005

Director

  • John Harden

Cast

  • Donovan Dutro, Matlock Zumsteg, Julien Fadda
  • Michael Meehan
  • Jared Abrahamson, Joslyn Jensen, Jennifer Lafleur

Three shorts by John Harden—some humorous, some heartbreaking—use science to explore the possibilities and problems that may await our species in the near-to-distant future.

Called “delightful,” and “endlessly inventive” by Alexander Payne (director of “Sideways” and “Nebraska”), “La Vie D’un Chien” (“The Life of a Dog”) explores how one scientist’s quest for transformation becomes a humanity-reckoning social movement. The film won numerous prizes, including Sci-Fi London Film Festival’s Best Short Film Award, 2005.

The hilariously off-kilter Cold War-themed “The Story of Sputnik” (2009) takes a retro-futurist look at an unthinkable possibility.


The movingly bittersweet “New” (2015) explores the human cost of eternal life, as an elderly married couple awake in a world where the cryogenically preserved are granted a second chance at life, in brand new bodies.


Banner image courtesy of johnfilms.com

Past Programs

2021

[ONLINE] Cinema as crystal ball

California Film Institute, San Rafael, CA