A Conspiracy Involving Jesus and Technology Unfolds In the Trailer for Jack Auen and Kevin Walker’s Chronovisor

      An immediate contender for movie-of-the-year, *Chronovisor* has retained much of its appeal since its debut at Rotterdam in February. Following its acquisition by Grasshopper Film, Jack Auen and Kevin Walker’s first feature will premiere at Film at Lincoln Center on September 4, before a wider theatrical release. Leading up to that, the first trailer has been released.

      As Leonardo Goi mentioned in our review from Rotterdam, “Although it appears to be set in the present, *Chronovisor* continually disrupts your sense of time. Apart from the sporadic use of smartphones, the ‘action,’ limited as it may be, unfolds in a world seemingly frozen in time (when Béatrice attempts to reach out to one of Ernetti’s surviving relatives, she sends a typed letter instead of an email). The narrative progressively shifts from the academic-turned-detective to the media she engages with: we listen to recordings of a lecture Ernetti delivered about his invention, view archival TV footage regarding him and others who tried to connect with the deceased, and primarily, we read. *Chronovisor* exhibits a profound affection for the written word, with close-ups of books and articles making up the majority of its runtime—English translations of various languages being presented not as subtitles but directly over the original text on the page. This choice is not a trivial one: Auen and Walker encourage viewers to read alongside Béatrice, and what is particularly intriguing about their film is how it strives to integrate two distinct art forms (literature and cinema) and activities (reading and viewing), adjusting its tempo to accommodate both.”

      Here’s the synopsis: “While composing a monograph on historical theories of memory, Beatrice, a devoted and esteemed academic, becomes captivated by the tale of the ‘Chronovisor,’ an esoteric device claimed to project visuals from any moment in history onto a television screen. Her fixation on the machine pulls her from her Upper East Side home through New York City’s obscure libraries, ultimately leading her to the brink of a breakthrough and a breakdown.”

      Watch below: