Other Worlds Fires Up The Flux Capacitor For Retro Warm-Up Fest

If you can't travel to Other Worlds, then Other Worlds will travel to you. That's the cosmic broadcast from the Austin celebration of all things science, which will leap online for its 2020 iteration in December - and, before that, it will be offering a free weekend of the best films from its six year history.

Other Worlds Flux Capacitor Mini-Fest, the three-day celebration of alternate nows and tomorrows (running Sept. 18-20) begins with a title from the inaugural Other Worlds 2014, back when it was still Other Worlds Austin: Perfect 46, which delves into our fascination with genetic perfection and modeling the ideal relationship. That's just the first jump back in time, as founder Bears Rebecca Fonté and the scheduling team have picked a title from each year of the fest – many of them giving filmmakers who weren't able to attend at the time a chance for the Q&A they missed out on then.

Out of the sophomore lineup comes 2015's House of Time, 2016's retro-screening will be Virtual Revolution, set in a near-future Paris where video games are as deadly as real life then, from 2017 there will be Australian neural nightmare Restoration, in which a man finds that his identity is not as unique as he thought. After that, the 2018 rewind is pan-dimensional identity comedy The Wrong Todd, and wrapping up will be one of Other Worlds' most giddily deranged titles to date, 2019 audience favorite The Lake Michigan Monster.

The trip back in time will also include a bonus from year one, mystical martial arts fable "The Sun Devil and the Princess," plus three blocks of shorts selected by associate artistic director Jordan Brown, each concentrating on three of the festival's fields of expertise: the Underworlds horror strand, the Mary Shelley Show (highlighting women filmmakers in genre), and a selection of audience award winners. That will all be rounded out by new filmmaker Q&As, plus a pair of shorts discussion blocks.

Much Like the recent online version of the All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival (aGLIFF), for which Fonté is both secretary and technical director, the screenings will be timed and followed by new filmmaker Q&As. aGLIFF also had a free preview weekend, and Fonté said that Flux Capacitor extends that idea. "They only did a couple of films, but we thought, we've done six years, so it would be easy for us to do six films."

Best of all, the whole three day streaming event will be completely free. Fonté described the weekend as "a little bit of a taste of the festival" for first-timers, as well as a chance to revisit some faves. "It was always important for me to always have a time travel film, an alternate reality film, and a comedy film – and that's Lake Michigan Monster."

Other Worlds Flux Capacitor Mini-Fest, Sept. 18-20. Free passes available at www.otherworldsfilmfest.com/2020. There's also a $25 donation option that comes with a chance to win a pass for the main festival plus exclusive merch from previous years.

Fri. Sept. 18
8pm: Perfect 46

Sat. Aug. 19
Noon: Short Talk
2pm: House of Time
5pm: The Wrong Todd
8pm: Restoration

Sun. Aug. 20
Noon: Shorts Talk
1pm: "Sun Devil and the Princess"
4:30pm: Lake Michigan Monster
7pm: Virtual Revolution