The World

2022 AD. In the retro near future of an alternate Earth timeline, a plague has swept across the planet, killing almost 50% of the population. Governments of the largest nations react by removing obstacles to human cloning. Thanks to these clones, humanity survives.

2097 AD. Seventy five years later, in any first world country, it is legal for an “original” human to license clones of themselves to work, then sit back and make a tidy profit. Licensed clones are now a controlled-class of citizens called bio-copies or “bios”. They are created with a short life span and are heavily monitored. However, there is a thriving black market in unlicensed clones, created from bio-hacks. Victims of these hacks are often the very last to learn that their identities have been stolen.

The Story

Hunter Sterns is a copyright investigator whose job is to track down illegal bio-copies of original humans. Although Hunter himself is a bio-copy, he has forced himself to become numb to the trouble he brings to others of his kind.

His new client, Carol Hall, who does not realize Hunter is a bio, attempts to impress him with a traditional Japanese tea ceremony while he interviews her. After explaining that she believes the up and coming artist Jeri Moon is an illegal bio-copy of hers, she is embarrassed to discover that Hunter is not an original. She threatens to report him for leading her on, then demands that Hunter find the illegal Jeri Moon copy and destroy it.

Unless Carol is satisfied with the investigation, Hunter’s boss will remove his license. That means death to a copy. Using the information Carol gave him in the interview, Hunter tracks down her bio-copy, sacrificing everything he holds dear in the process.

When he finds Jeri Moon, she is living with a partner in an outlying suburb of the city. Before he can kill her, he realizes Jeri is being treated like an original by everyone she interacts with. Suddenly unsure if he is doing the right thing, Hunter follows Jeri back to her home and forces her and her partner to meet with him. He quickly realizes that Jeri has no idea what she is, but discovers Jeri’s partner has a secret she would do anything to protect.

Nebraska Filmmaking

I Belong to Me was created for the 2018 Prairie Lights Film Festival Science Fiction Anthology. Locations included Turbine Flats, Trago Park and a private residence in Lincoln, as well as alleys in Omaha’s downtown area and several access hallways in Omaha’s Oakview mall. From pre-production through principal photography, I Belong to Me provided creative opportunities and work experience to over twenty Nebraska-based actors and artists. Produced by Unfiltered Entertainment, Inc., a Lincoln-based production company celebrating its eleventh year in business, this short was made possible by the generosity and creativity of Nebraska’s filmmaking community.

Photo Credits

Tea set photo credit: Mike Johnson
All other photos: Greg Kubitschek
Actors featured in photos Top to Bottom:
Melissa Wilson & Cody O’Grady
Melissa Wilson
Amos Sterns, Cody O’Grady & Andrea Erickson
Cody O’Grady

Copyright 2018 Unfiltered Entertainment, Inc.