The Fourth Screening of 2026
Dasein: Synthesis
Different forms. Shared visions. New possibilities.
Six short films from five countries, about minds uploaded and bodies rebuilt, families left behind, worlds remembered differently, and a life weighed choice by choice. Synthesis explores what happens when opposites, fragments, and different creative languages are brought into relation. Not to erase their differences, but to create a third possibility that did not exist before. Human intuition meets AI. Live action meets generative imagery. Traditional filmmaking meets emerging tools.
Audience Choice AwardAround one hour of curated shorts$13, or Venmo / Cash App @ilgassq
Official Selection · Screening Order
01
Space Dad
Bryce Mackie & Tom Mackie · United States
One man must leave his family on a voyage to outer space.
Bryce Mackie has made films for more than twenty years, with over 600 international festival selections and awards, and makes work meant to leave a positive social impact.
4:38
02
Désirée
Jose Alvarez · United Kingdom
In 18th-century England, Marie, a gifted French dressmaker, is commissioned by the Queen to stage a spectacular fashion show for the King’s birthday, and the two women are drawn into an intense and dangerous connection.
A former crew member on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Jose Alvarez now tells stories of memory, guilt, time and identity through AI.
14:32
03
IMAGINE
Yongkyu Cho · South Korea
K seeks eternal life through a brain implant, and the line between the world he imagines and the one he lives in begins to disappear.
4:03
04
The Seven Books
Samo Rera · Egypt
Five civilizations survived the same war, and none tell it the same way. Deep inside a sealed structure, a reconstruction specialist finds people who have lived so long without daylight that the sun itself has become their lock.
Egyptian filmmaker, photographer and founder of Elcreators. “AI is not the author of the film. It is a new production instrument.”
14:27
05
Warden
Aleksei Kolychev · Serbia
In desperate hope, the scientist Ohwee uploads her mind into Shugo, the guardian who took her daughter. What she doesn’t know is that she has already lost.
8:06
06
The Interview
David Mann · United States
A successful finance professional wakes in a sterile corporate waiting room for what seems a routine job interview, until the questions turn into a final reckoning with every choice and silence of his life.
An AI film director who makes broadcast-level work entirely with AI; his films have screened at festivals including Alexandria International Short Film Festival.
12:28
Total running time · approx. 58 minutes
If every choice was counted, what would your record say?
Different worlds. One story.
Upcider, 1160 Polk St, Floor 2, San Francisco
www.daseinfilmfestival.com · @daseinfilmfestival · @daseincreative
www.daseinfilmfestival.com · @daseinfilmfestival · @daseincreative