"... the freshest thing the genre has seen since 2001" - Dennis Lim, The Village Voice
"[Carruth had] "the skill, the guile and the seriousness to turn a creaky philosophical gimmick into a dense and troubling moral puzzle" - A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Intellectual engineers Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) build and sell error-checking technology with the help of their friends Robert (Casey Gooden) and Phillip (Anand Upadhyaya). But when they accidentally invent what they think is a time machine, Abe builds a version capable of transporting a human and puts the device to the test. As the two friends obsess over their creation, they discover the dark consequences of their actions. Made on a miniscule budget, PRIMER’s experimental plot structure unwinds in everyday locations with dense dialogue prompting some critical ire when it was released. In Esquire, Mike D’Angelo wrote “... anybody who claims he fully understands what's going on in PRIMER after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar.” Confusing or clever, PRIMER remains a staple of the time-travel movie canon.
Awards and Nominations
Grand Jury Prize, 2004, Sundance Film Festival
LO-FI SCI-FI | January 30–February 24, 2026
Big ideas with small budgets, practical effects over digital enhancement, and human-scale story are the hallmarks of LO-FI SCI-FI films. These eight titles engage our love of the science fiction genre, employing a bevy of imaginative approaches: high concepts in quotidian worlds, imaginative production design to approximate mind-bending alternate realities, and the scientific questions of their time in relatable themes of love and self-discovery.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu