The Institute
Oct 18 - Oct 24, 2013
(Spencer McCall, United States, 2012, Digital, 92 min)
Seattle premiere!
Enigma, wonder and mystery can be yours, courtesy of The Jejune Institute, who created a sprawling urban adventure/role-playing game that spanned not hours, but years. Thousands of participants in a San Francisco-based alternate reality game ended up getting more than they bargained for.
Told from the players’ perspectives, The Institute looks over a precipice at an emergent new art form, where 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.
"blurs the line between straight documentary and pure fiction. It’s hard to tell where authenticity ends and an alternative reality begins." —The Seattle Times
"If you’ve ever thought, “Man, I need to step away from the computer, get out of the house, and be with actual people,” The Institute is a caution against the new meet-up culture among strangers." —Seattle Weekly