WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD'S FAIR opens April 15th at BAM and the Quad Cinema in New York; Expanding to theaters nationwide (including the Landmark Westwood in Los Angeles) and digital platforms on April 22nd.
"Jane Schoenbrun's exploration of internet culture through a chilling coming-of-age story is an auspicious, wildly smart narrative feature debut."
- Kate Erbland, IndieWire
"An original vanguard vision. A sad, transfixing, and ultimately perceptive movie about the way that the internet has fundamentally reshaped communication and maybe our relationship to reality, too."
- A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club
"A warm hand for those still trying to figure themselves out. Feels both specific and universal at the same time."
- Jourdain Searles, The Hollywood Reporter
Synopsis
Late on a cold night somewhere in the U.S., teenage Casey (Anna Cobb in her feature debut) sits alone in her attic bedroom, scrolling the internet under the glow-in-the-dark stars and black-light posters that blanket the ceiling. She has finally decided to take the World’s Fair Challenge, an online role-playing horror game, and embrace the uncertainty it promises. After the initiation, she documents the changes that may or may not be happening to her, adding her experiences to the shuffle of online clips available for the world to see. As she begins to lose herself between dream and reality, a mysterious figure reaches out, claiming to see something special in her uploads.
About the Filmmaker
Jane Schoenbrun (Writer, Director, Editor) is a non-binary filmmaker who co-created the ongoing touring variety series The Eyeslicer, a collaboration with hundreds of filmmakers including David Lowery, Ari Aster, Shaka King, Jennifer Reeder, Bridey Elliott, and many more. The Eyeslicer is executive produced by arts collective Meow Wolf and has screened in hundreds of venues across the world including MoMA, the Tribeca Film Festival, and Kansas City’s oldest porn theater. In 2018, Jane created the Radical Film Fair, a film flea market and mentorship event that drew thousands of attendees. Jane is the director of the feature documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination (Rotterdam 2019), a producer on Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life (Kino Lorber, 2019), an EP on season one of Terence Nance’s "Random Acts of Flyness" (HBO, 2018), and the creator of the omnibus ‘dream film’ collective:unconscious (SXSW 2016). Jane sometimes publishes the column “Continue Watching” for FILMMAKER Magazine, and has previously worked as the Senior Film Lead at Kickstarter and as the Associate Director of Programming at IFP. We're All Going to the World's Fair is their first narrative feature as writer/director.
About the Composer
Philadelphia-based artist Alex G (a.k.a. Alex Giannascoli) started his career with six self-recorded and largely self-released LPs. Revered by fans and peers alike, these early recordings earned him cult status while they were passed around like a secret between devotees. Following his label debut, 2014'S DSU, Alex G's following continued to grow with the release of 2015's Beach Music, and with the critical acclaim accompanying the release of 2017's Rocket, "America's greatest living songwriters" [FADER] was a secret no more. In 2019, House of Sugar emerged as his most meticulous, cohesive album yet: a statement of artistic purpose, showing off his ear for both persistent earworms and shifting textures, and the out-there sonic adventurism that's made previous Alex G records so singular.
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers
Music: Alex G
Editor: Jane Schoenbrun
Cinematographer: Daniel Patrick Carbone
Executive Producers: Daniel Patrick Carbone, Hannah Dweck, Matthew Petock, Theodore Schaefer, Zachary Shedd
Producers: Sarah Winshall, Abby Harri, Carlos Zozaya
Running Time: 86 mins