A young man returns home to visit his family but instead unearths more family trauma - all exacerbated with his choice to merge with other human brains to become one new identity. The family bonds, already fragile, shatter. Against the backdrop of AI, brain chips and networked humans, it brings up the questions of who we really are and how the future will affect the concept of family.

Director Statement

The theme of ‘returning home’ and observing in yourself a change that is unrecognisable to your hometown, is a feeling that is familiar to us both—we both matured miles from our hometowns, and know what it is to change inside and out.

The duality between the stasis of home, and the change within, is explored visually throughout the film—through framing, styling and the awkward intimacies and distances between the characters.

While the film’s overall tone is one of remorse, at what we must leave behind, it reveals a message of hope, too.

We/Us explores the theme of found vs given family. It uses a sci-fi lens to debate identity and awakenings, reflective of, but also moving beyond, the familiar LGBTQIA+ experience, into the uncharted identities possible in mankind’s future.

Oliver Warren & AJ Vaage, Directors

WRITER’S STATEMENT

When I came out to my family in the 90s, my mum had two very powerful reactions: “What have I done wrong?”, and “Why are you doing this to me?”.

Many years (and moments of personal growth for us both) later, those words still echo in my mind. And while we both now know these questions don’t really have answers, I wanted to explore: what if they did?

What if someone who was ‘coming out’ to their family, was doing it as a reaction to something their parents had, or hadn’t, done? What if it was a choice? And a punishment?

While exploring a world for these ‘what ifs’, my mind turned to the limitless potential of sci-fi, and an essay by Yuval Noah Harari focused my mind on the potential of networked humans.

Thus, the story of We/Us was born.

What I didn’t expect, as I was first writing the short, was for the story to be as universal as it is—yet readers and audiences continually respond to the story as a reflection of their own fragmented relationships with family and their hometowns. As a result, I truly appreciate how broad the audience for this story could be.

Oliver Warren, Writer