‘uTransfer’ is an insightful glimpse that ties the many threads of sci-fi, technology, systemic racism, and immigrant realities together. The year is 2088 and the protagonist, Dean Flores, presents to us a world where he is trying to upload his consciousness to a parallel realm, created and supported by technology. The utopic ‘New World’ requires you to clear an exhaustive questionnaire before you are approved for the transfer. He hopes to be reunited with his dead brother in the process. 
 
The short film utilizes a fixed physical space, complete with its gadgets and devices, to portray all of this for the viewer via its predominantly single-cast set-up. The performance and writing become its most notable components, along with the screenplay, which remains tight and efficient and does not waste a single beat in delineating this world. 

The endeavor also presents an entire spectrum of emotions - from anger, loss, and tragedy, to ideas of justice and systemic racism. The end result that is eventually offered to the viewer becomes a sincere result that exhibits deep potential for more storytelling and engagement of the same kind.

uTransfer | Short Film Nominee

The primary engagement of Dreamer is one of immense cultural and social relevance. While dealing with notions of racism and its far-reaching consequences on those who find themselves at its receiving end is a conversation of all times, its resonance has only gained more momentum in contemporary times, ensuring that we truly sit up and pay attention to the several undercurrents that are making their presence felt. 

The narrative does its bit in furthering the said conversation by introducing us predominantly to a single experience of Dr Lily Cruz. As she stands before an immigration officer, a part of a lived reality that might have no more than the significance of a mundane occurrence for the person of the right skin color, little does Dr Cruz realize that her world is about to be turned upside down. 

Through the brief, but impactful exchange between the officer and the protagonist, an important comment is made about the deep bias and prejudice that operates within different sections of society, leaving one utterly and frustratingly powerless in the face of potentially oppressive and arbitrary societal forces. At the film’s conclusion, lies a very crucial comment about the same, and the adverse aftermath of racism, sometimes overt, but other times, more inert, systemic, and therefore insidious, giving rise to the absolute need for the said dialogue to be furthered.

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