Primer
Netflix | Amazon | Google Play | Hulu | iTunes | Vudu | Xbox | YouTube
DVD
Directed by Shane Carruth
Starring Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford
ThinkFilm
Originally Released: October 8, 2004

Some of the most revolutionary scientific and technological breakthroughs were never deliberately thought out, designed, and planned. In fact, many of the most innovative leaps forward were discovered by accident.

Humanity, forever stumbling in the dark, feeling their way for whatever momentous course changes arise into their lives for the benefit of those in the future… But what if time travel became one of those accidental discoveries? The indie sci-fi flick Primer answers and addresses this.

Four young entrepreneurs, scientists who play more like social media startups than anything else, are working towards solid scientific work and research while on the quest for sufficient funding. At this point in their journey, the two more business minded men, Aaron and Abe, find themselves at odds with their more free-thinking and discovery oriented partners, Robert and Phillip.

Upstream Color
Director: Shane Carruth
Screenwriter: Shane Carruth
Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thiago Martins, Kathy Carruth, Meredith Burke

Synopsis: A young woman is abducted and seemingly brainwashed via an organic material harvested from a specific orchid. She later meets a man and after the two fall for each other, they come to realize he may also have been subjected to the same process. The two search urgently for a place of safety within each other and struggle to assemble the fragments of their wrecked lives as they are unknowingly drawn into the life cycle of a presence that permeates the microscopic world, moving to nematodes, plant life, livestock, and back again.

Shane Carruth‘s Upstream Color premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to an abundance of hype. Carruth’s follow-up to his fantastic 2004 time travel film, Primer, Upstream Color screened as part of SXSW‘s opening night festivities at The Stateside Theatre and ran the gauntlet of audience reaction. As moviegoers left the screening I heard “brilliant,” “profound,” “confusing,” and “fucking atrocious” within seconds of each other – a divisive, peculiar film that feels equal parts Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Mike Cahill (Another Earth), and Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko).

Before we start, a couple of rules that I followed while making this list:

-Documentaries don’t count: Watching the scene and setting the scene are two different things. If you made a documentary before you made your dramatic debut, the dramatic debut is the one I’m counting.

-Your movie had to be distributed: Every once in a while, a feature makes the film festival rounds without actually getting picked up and distributed. If your second film was released in theaters in America, that’s the one I’m counting.

-No Donnie Darko: That movie is actually an episode of Quantum Leap with shitty emo “Kill Yourself” music packed in. Sorry, kids.

So now then… The Ten Best Directorial Debuts of the Decade