The notion of isolation has dominated our collective conscious for the best part of the last year, and the coronavirus pandemic will be justifiably singled out as the culprit. But it would be preposterous to suggest that this sense did not exist previously; it has simply been magnified. For instance, convincing evidence of technology’s divisive effects is clear – cyber warfare, internet trolls, the dark web, video and music piracy, and an endless catalogue of media platforms that tend to serve as a breeding ground for social and psychological disorder.
 
But, of course, we must not forget the flip side of the virtual coin, the wonders that technology has gifted us too – one-click shopping, cloud storage, space travel, streaming, global networking, virtual reality, artificial intelligence... The list goes on. Whether positive or negative, microcosmic or macrocosmic, the impact of technology on our lives has been profound. Our featured short, The Lonely Orbit, smartly and beautifully explores this very sentiment, capturing the fraught contradictions of a world equally fractured and sutured by humankind’s scientific interventions.
 
This issue reviews Benjamin Morard and Frederic Siegel's The Lonely Orbit, a compassionate film using the framework of science fiction to highlight the value of human interaction.
 
Also featured: Staff Pick, Rattle, Two Down, The Pearson Twins, Below the Hills, Strangers, Seabreeze, and much more...