Record/Play

War, fate, and a broken walkman transcend space and time in this sci-fi love story. Such is the premise for Record/Play, one of the shorts that generated a sizable amount of buzz at this year's Sundance festival. At the core of this short lies the idea of 'sense memory,' the ability to unlock or evoke memories via one of the five senses.

I recently had a powerful moment when I ate a food that I hadn't had in decades, and it took me back to my childhood in a mental rush I'd never felt before. The protagonist of Record/Play seeks a similar high and ultimately begins to experience powerful flashbacks which ultimately piece together some rather painful memories. Is everything unfolding real or simply a matter of wishful thinking regarding a scenario? That is left up to us to conclude.