RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH
118 minutes/US/English / Feature Narrative/Sci-Fi
Director: John Alan Simon*
radiofreealbemuth.com
ABOUT THE FILM: Berkeley record store clerk Nick Brady (Jonathan Scarfe) begins to experience strange visions from an entity he calls VALIS that cause him to uproot his family and move to Los Angeles where he becomes a successful music company executive. With the help of best friend, science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick himself (Shea Whigam) and a mysterious woman named Silvia (Alanis Morissette), Nick finds himself drawn into a dangerous political-mystical conspiracy of cosmic proportions. The story is set in an alternate reality America circa 1985 under the authoritarian control of President Fremont, a Nixon-like clone (Scott Wilson). Source: IMDB.com/title/tt1129396/
RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH is an indie film based on the novel by Philip K. Dick (PKD) of the same title which sold over 2,000,000 copies. RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH is PKD’s most autobiographical novel, and the author wrote himself in as a character in the novel (played by Shea Whigham in the movie). Whigham’s performance garnered him a Best Actor Award at Sydney Fantastic Planet Film Festival in Australia. RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH was awarded Director’s Choice Best Feature at the Sydney Festival. The filmmakers, helmed by Writer/Director John Alan Simon, were committed to making a film that honored PKD’s independent spirit and great intellect. Being a huge fan of PKD himself, John Alan Simon made a movie that would appeal to PKD fans. Source: radiofreealbemuth.com