Now Instant and NEW INC present four originative animated films from NEW INC members Alice Bucknell, Kevin Peter He, and Wendi Yan, each pushing the boundaries of game engines as dynamic cinematographic spaces and rethinking the role of game engines not just as interactive environments for play, but also as vibrant storytelling tools that shape and define visual language. Each piece takes viewers on a journey through rich, immersive worlds where the lines between gaming, animation, and cinema blur.

This event is followed by a reception with NEW INC members and staff and coincides with NEW INC's annual Open Call for membership.

Filmmaker and real-time artist Kevin Peter He explores metaphors of grotesque yet beautiful transformation in a visceral video of experimental cellist MIZU’s song prphtbrd (ft. Concrete Husband). In a dark and abstract reminiscent of a dense forest, a 3D-scanned avatar of MIZU flickers and warps from human to tree to bird in a raw, ever-morphing digital form. Crafted entirely through real-time filmmaking, Kevin performs and records cinematography, lighting, and FX live, layering onto the motion-captured dance. prphtbrd pushes game engines beyond traditional uses, transforming filmmaking into an improvisational, performative act where visuals evolve dynamically in response to movement and sound.

Tale of the Mammoth Goddess tells the story of a resurrected mammoth who escapes from the Pleistocene Park and hides in an abandoned coal mine to prepare for her natural death. Through an AI-generated voice, the mammoth guides visitors through her makeshift sanctuary, confessing her complex feelings about her identity and her relationship with time. Using Unreal Engine and 3D game art software, Yan built a home for the mammoth goddess, mixing digitized archival objects with fictional artifacts within a repurposed virtual coal mine. Drawing from her history of science research, Yan traces the broad evolving arc of extinction thinking in human history, through our enduring material and symbolic connections to mammoths. 

Staring at the Sun is a "sc-fi documentary" exploring the dark side of solar geoengineering: the deliberate, large-scale modification of the Earth’s climate systems by manipulating the influence of the sun. Set globally across the Louisiana Bayou to the Arctic Circle, Wyoming to Gstaad, and from the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to the palm oil plantations of Indonesia, this work examines geoengineering proposals that are currently undergoing research and development in both the United States and Europe, as well as current evolutions in climate modeling and digital twin technology.

The Alluvials is a video work and playable game that explores the politics of drought and water scarcity in a near-future version of Los Angeles. The story is told through a variety of nonhuman and elemental perspectives, including the Los Angeles River, wildfire, a 400-year-old sycamore called El Aliso, and the ghost of the city's celebrity mountain lion, P-22. The story is told across media, including custom-built game environments, "modded" versions of the fictional city of Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto 5, 3D scans of the city captured by drone, and Stable Diffusion "hallucinations" merging historical images of the River with existing proposals for its redevelopment. The Alluvials also utilizes pollution datasets collected by local organizations including Friends of the LA River, converting this data into audio-visual assets that appear in the video and game world, encountering players.

Please note: seating is limited. Box Office opens thirty minutes prior to the listed showtime. Online ticket sales will be honored up until 15 minutes after the scheduled showtime. In-store ticket purchases are subject to availability, first-come, first-served. We do not operate a standby list. All Sales Final.