Public Broadcasting Envisions Future With Attacking Robots

Futurestates, the public broadcasting web series that “imagines America’s tomorrow today,” launched its second season featuring 10 new episodes.

The sci-fi series, funded by The Independent Television Service, is a collection of “short narrative films created by veteran filmmakers and emerging talents transforming today’s complex social issues into visions about what life will be like in decades to come.” Debuting at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, the second season of Futurestates promises 10 filmmakers’ visions of America in the not-too-distant future: what we’ll do, where we’ll live, and who we’ll be.

The lineup:

Beholder by Nisha Ganatra Sasha
A resident of the socially conservative gated community Red Estates, makes a discovery about her genetically engineered unborn child that causes her to rethink her allegiances.

Remigration by Barry Jenkins
In a future San Francisco that is entirely upper-class, the city starts a program  to bring working-class families back to the city that pushed them out. When one such family returns, it must decide whether to stay.

Asparagus by Robby Henson
In a regimented greenhouse laboratory, an isolated agricultural engineer named Dekard learns lessons about life and love from a fertilizer delivery agent and a renegade asparagus.

Spring of Sorrow by Suzi Yoonessi
Two sisters live a nomadic life, displaced by global warming. Trapped in the desert in the midst of a water shortage, Isabelle tells her younger sister Lily a fairytale that explains how this tragedy came to be.

Digital Antiquities by JP Chan
In 2036, all digital media is permanently stored in “the cloud.” Data recovery store employee Cat, and Kai — a young man with an old compact disc — discover a secret that will unite them forever.

Exposure by Mia Trachinger
In a world where people are employed as live body contagions to immunize urban populations, an unvaccinated man resists being inoculated.

The Dig by Bennett Cohen
As the world faces environmental collapse, a group of archaeologists venture into a toxic desert wasteland, determined to unearth a lost civilization. Can this ancient disaster help them avert their own ruin?

White by A. Sayeeda Clarke
It’s another 120-degree December day in New York City. With no money to pay for medical care for his pregnant wife, Bato races against the sun to save his family.

Worker Drone by Sharat Raju
At GlobeCom India, where he provides technical assistance to customers calling in from America, Rahul’s days blend together. But an office showdown offers him a rare chance to leave his dungeon-like home in Technology City.

That Which Once Was by Kimi Takesue
In 2032, an 8-year-old Caribbean boy, displaced by global warming, fends for himself as an environmental refugee in a hostile Northern metropolis and forms an unexpected friendship with an Inuk ice carver.