The Institute
The Institute
| 11 October 2013 (USA)
The Institute Trailers

Thousands of participants in a San Francisco-based alternate reality game end up getting more than they bargained for. Told from the players’ perspectives, the film looks over the precipice at an emergent new art form where the real world and fictional narratives merge to create unforeseen and often unsettling consequences. Examining counter-culture, new religious movements and street art, this film takes the viewer on a journey into a secret underground world teeming just beneath the surface of everyday life.

Reviews
We_Just_Lost_Cabin_Pressure

Spoiler alert- possible spoilers below. Not much to spoil though, its already a rotten tomato.The trailer and reviews, as well as film festival pedigree had me interested. Wow- only $0.99 to rent on iTunes- I wanted to like this film. I only made it though 35 minutes before I had to turn it off. Its a pretty lame doc/mockumentary about a goofy fantasy game that players with psychiatric disorders or predispositions might misunderstand or think is real.I've seen worse films and mockumentaries, but I wouldn't intentionally watch one.

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flinched

Prepare to dive into an interactive new form of art. The creators describes it as an "urban playground movement" or "alternate reality game". It's essentially a mix of art, video, and elaborate clues that lead curious citizens of San Fransisco to explore their city all the while immersing themselves into a bizarre story.It's all created by Jeff Hull who's main theme is on seeing things in a nonchalant way. By nonchalance, it's described as a cartoon where the unconscious character goes around a city and seemingly avoids dangerous situations through extraordinary luck; a way of exploring using your unconscious mind. The goal is to go elsewhere, to go somewhere between here and there. Basically a place you may or may not have gone before and enter a storybook world of imagination that exists hidden in the world around us.It sounds crazy typing it out and reading it back to myself, so no doubt it must sound absurd to you the reader. Nevertheless, the movie gave me a sense of awe and joy as I followed each participant down the rabbit hole, all the while, surrounded by these all immersing elaborate clues that create this tension between reality and fiction. Watching how each participant was effected by these clues and how it changed them is what makes this a great film. This movie and the artist transformed the ordinary world into a place full of potential and mystery. And isn't that what makes art, isn't that what makes a movie a magical experience. And as such, I humbly recommend you watch this film and take a glimpse into the elsewhere.

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be_a_klugman

I saw this movie at the Mill Valley Film Festival last year and have thought about it a lot since then. From the start, the film has incredibly compelling visuals and soundtrack, but the interviews with members (?) seem pretty straight forward. As the movie continues though, it seems as though things start twisting and the information may or may not be "real." Are these people acting? Is this even what happened? It might all be fake, or it might all be real, or a beautiful mixture of fact and fiction. Regardless, it looks like it was a lot of fun to participate, and I love the idea of having things like this going on around you without your knowledge. I recommend watching the movie (I think you can get it on iTunes) and seeing if you can tell what is real -- if anything.

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Lisbeth_S

There have been many attempts to do a straight up documentary about the NSA's Mind Control program, but it's been shot down every time it gets going. Someone in the govt gets wind of it and then before it even gets off the ground, the project is terminated. This seems to take ALL of the aspects of what Targeted Individuals experience-- Electronic Harassment, gang stalking, EEG Cloning with supercomputers that send back other negative cloned emotions from other individuals via electromagnetic microwaves. In order to map a person's electromagnetic signature, you have to have them in one spot for a good while to capture their unique signal. That's why most TI's are picked up at low income apartment buildings... they clone them there, through walls, then once they have the signature signal... they're tagged for life. I'm surprised this project got this far... even though they're turning some of the story into fiction, by making it look like a game. It should be interesting to see what other projects come out, now that this has been released.

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