See You Yesterday

by Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol, directed by Stefon Bristol

Release: 3 May 2019
Format: Feature Film
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: YA and Up
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Up in the ITTDB Citadel, our first attraction is naturally to the time travel aspects of any movie, even when the result is an incomprehensible time wreck resulting from a pair of teenage geniuses. That’s what’s on the surface here, but it also seems to be a metaphor for the even bigger train wreck of the racist society in the 21st-century United States.

— Michael Main

You’re missing the big picture here: If time travel were possible, it would be the greatest ethical and philosophical conundrum of the modern age.

DEBUT

See You Yesterday (Tribeca Film Festival, New York City, 3 May 2019).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 2000 to 2099: early summer, 2019

Timeline Models

Multiple Naive Timelines: Definite multiple timelines, but we see no way to consistently put them together.
Remembering Different Timelines: Travelers remember the timeline they came from.

Time Travel Methods

Wearable Time Object: bulky, but still wearable as a backpack

Themes

Caution! Do Not Destroy Spacetime Continuum!: During our jump back we have agreed not to make any major changes as to not break the time-space continuum [. . .]
Making Things Worse
Save Your Family!
Self-Visitation: C.J. and Bash see themselves in the bodega.
What Year Is It?: C.J. frantically asks the date.

Real-World Tags

Civil Rights Movements: the Black Lives Matter political and social movement
Independence Day

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From an alley in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, 29 June 2019 ⋙ to the same alley, 28 June 2019. Round trip. Note: the first successful test run by C.J. and Bash.
From the alley, 8 July 2019 ⋙ to the alley, 4 July 2019. Round trip. Note: C.J. and Bash’s first attempt to save Calvin fails because they run into Jarod.
From the alley, 9 July 2019 ⋙ to the alley, 4 July 2019. Round trip. Note: This time around they try to stop the robbery. I didn’t understand what happened to Bash; he seemed to just disappear and didn’t return with C.J.
From the alley, 10 July 2019 ⋙ to the alley, 4 July 2019. Round trip. Note: C.J. travels on her own and Bash shows up when C.J. arrives in the alley. In the end, Calvin sacrafices himself, believing that he’s saving Bash.
From the alley, 11 July 2019 ⋙ to the alley, 4 July 2019. Note: C.J. makes one last attempt on her own, and we are left to wonder whether it will be another futile attempt.