Program Note
Sean, a school security guard in a small town on the outskirts of Los Angeles, is struggling with the looming reality of fatherhood. Haunted by childhood trauma and weighed down by the pressures of his job, he feels utterly unprepared to become a parent. One night during a routine shift, he witnesses a mysterious, glowing object in the sky. After that encounter, Sean begins to suffer from disturbing visions—strange images, apparitions of alien beings, and relentless nightmares. His pregnant wife, Andrea, grows increasingly anxious as she watches Sean unravel. Drawing on the motif of a Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1982), the film sensitively explores the psychological turmoil of a man caught between trauma and reality. Actor, Ross Marquand delivers a deeply immersive performance as Sean, pulling the audience into his unstable world—so convincingly that we're never quite sure what's real and what's imagined. Though the story appears to chase the mystery of an otherworldly presence, at its core is a luminous and emotional journey—one that centers not on discovery, but on the human will to face the past and emerge from darkness. This is not just an encounter with the unknown, but with the self. (Kani KIM)