1199 – What Remains of Edith Finch (2017 video game)

Winner of Best Game at the 2018 BAFTA Game Awards, as well as Best Narrative awards at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards, 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards, and The Game Awards 2017, What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state.

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As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she’s the last one in her family left alive. Each story you find lets you experience the life of a new family member on the day of their death, with stories ranging from the distant past to the present day.

The gameplay and tone of the stories are as varied as the Finches themselves. The only constants are that each is played from a first-person perspective and that each story ends with that family member’s death.
Ultimately, it’s a game about what it feels like to be humbled and astonished by the vast and unknowable world around us.

Created by Giant Sparrow, the team behind the first-person painting game The Unfinished Swan.

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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system / OS: Windows Vista SP2 64-bit or later / Processor: Intel i3 2125 3.30 GHz or later / Memory: 2 GB RAM / Graphics: GeForce GTX 750/AMD Radeon 7790 or later / Storage: 5 GB available space

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http://edithfinch.com/   /   steam

1197 – The 5th Wave (2016)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Dayton, Ohio / Earth

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child. When I became an adult, I put away childish things”. Colonel Vosch

The 5th Wave is a 2016 American science fiction action film directed by J Blakeson, with a screenplay by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner, based on Rick Yancey’s 2013 novel of the same name. The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, and Liev Schreiber. (wiki)

The 5th Wave novel  is the first in The 5th Wave trilogy, followed by The Infinite Sea (narration shifts to Ringer’s point of view) and The Last Star.

imdb

1185 – Serenity (2005)

timespace coordinates: In the 26th century, humanity has left an overpopulated Earth to colonize a new solar system. The central planets formed the Alliance and won a war against the outer planet Independents—those who resisted joining the Alliance.

Serenity is a 2005 American science fiction action film written and directed by Joss Whedon and stars Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

It is a continuation of Whedon’s short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly and stars the same cast, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2517, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of Serenity, a “Firefly-class” spaceship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret. (wiki)

Session 416   /  Cultural impact   /  Themes and cultural allusions   /  Cancelled sequel

imdb

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Fruity Oaty Bar! Commercial

1179 – The Atomic Cafe (1982)

timespace coordinates: 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s United States, the Marshall Islands

The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 American documentary film produced and directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States’ National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

The film covers the beginnings of the era of nuclear warfare, created from a broad range of archival material from the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s including newsreel clips, television news footage, U.S. government-produced films (including military training films), advertisements, television and radio programs. News footage reflected the prevailing understanding of the media and public.

Though the topic of atomic holocaust is a grave matter, The Atomic Cafe approaches it with black humor. Much of the humor derives from the modern audience’s reaction to the old training films, such as the Duck and Cover film shown in schools.

The Atomic Cafe was released at the height of nostalgia and cynicism in America. By 1982, Americans lost much of their faith in their government following the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the seemingly never-ending arms race with the Soviet Union. The Atomic Cafe reflects and reinforces this idea as it exposes how the atomic bomb’s dangers were downplayed and how the government used films to shape public opinion.

Bob Mielke, in “Rhetoric and Ideology in the Nuclear Test Documentary” (Film Quarterly) discusses the release of The Atomic Cafe: “This satire feature was released at the height of the nuclear freeze movement (which was in turn responding to the Reagan administration’s surreal handling of the arms race.)”

Patricia Aufderheide, in Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction touches on the significance of The Atomic Cafe as a window into the past of government propaganda and disinformation during the years following the advent of the Atomic Bomb. “Propaganda, also known as disinformation, public diplomacy, and strategic communication, continues to be an important tool for governments. But stand-alone documentary is no longer an important part of public relations campaigns aimed at the general public.” (wiki)

imdb

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Bikini Atoll

Because the site bears direct tangible evidence of the nuclear tests conducted there amid the paradoxical tropical location, UNESCO determined that the atoll symbolizes the dawn of the nuclear age and named it a World Heritage Site on 3 August 2010.

Bikini Atoll has conserved direct tangible evidence … conveying the power of … nuclear tests, i.e. the sunken ships sent to the bottom of the lagoon by the tests in 1946 and the gigantic Bravo crater. Equivalent to 7,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, the tests had major consequences on the geology and natural environment of Bikini Atoll and on the health of those who were exposed to radiation. Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the nuclear age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise.

1176 – The Battle of Chernobyl (2006 documentary)

On April 26, 1986, at 1:24am, a rainbow-colored flame shot 1,000 meters high into the Ukrainian sky. The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just exploded. A battle begins in which 500,000 men are engaged throughout the Soviet Union to “liquidate” the radioactivity, build the “sarcophagus“ of the damaged reactor and save the world from a second explosion that would have destroyed half of Europe.

This documentary combines testimonials, unseen original footage and documents to recreate the events of the great battle of Chernobyl day-by-day, as each development unfolded. imdb

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on youtube

1175 – Chernobyl (miniseries 2019)

timespace coordinates: 1986 – 1987 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic / Soviet Union

(DISTURBING CONTENT)

Chernobyl is a historical drama television miniseries created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck (Stakka Bo). The series a co-production of HBO and Sky UK depicting the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986 and the unprecedented cleanup efforts that followed. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, and Paul Ritter. The miniseries is based in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl. (wiki)

historical accuracy

imdb

1169 – Ender’s Game (2013)

timespace coordinates: future North Carolina, Battle School, Fairyland / the End of the World, Command School, the Colony (SETTING)

Ender’s Game is a 2013 American military science fiction action film based on Orson Scott Card‘s 1985 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Gavin Hood, the film stars Asa Butterfield as Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, an unusually gifted child who is sent to an advanced military academy in outer space to prepare for a future alien invasion. The supporting cast includes Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, and Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsley. (wiki)

imdb   /  Websites   /  potential sequel