Chronovisor (2026)

While writing a monograph on historical theories of memory, Béatrice (Anne-Laure Sellier), a respected academic, becomes beguiled by the allegedly true story of the Chronovisor — an occult device said to reproduce visuals from any point in history on a TV screen. Her obsession with the mysterious machine drags her from her Upper East Side apartment through the depths of New York City's hidden libraries, to the edge of a breakthrough.

-

In a time where mainstream cinema feels stuck/stale/boring/etc, NYU students Jack Auen and Kevin Walker have managed to make something genuinely fresh and unique with Chronovisor. Described as an Academic Noir, starring real-life professor Anne-Laure Sellier, and focused primarily on the act of reading, Chronovisor is one of the strongest (and strangest) American film debuts of the 21st century. Columbia scholar Béatrice Courte, while researching something relatively unrelated, learns about the Chronovisor. The Chronovisor was supposedly invented by Benedictine monk named Father Pellegrino Ernetti, who claimed it could transmit past events onto a tv, as if they were happening live. He claimed he saw the crucifixion, as well as orations by Cicero, and this was widley disputed by members of the Catholic Church. This part is real by the way.

As anyone with a curious mind is wont to do, she finds herself going down the rabbit hole of obsessive research, faced with an archive that is sparse, elusive, and entirely analog. Filmed in gorgeous 16mm and synthesizing influences like Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolano, Umberto Eco, Nam June Paik, and somehow National Treasure & Indiana Jones, Chronovisor is a film that does the impossible. It takes the personal act of reading & translates it into the cinematic form. We are tremendously excited to be bringing this film to Richmond with the help of Grasshopper Films.

— Lewis Peterson, Hard Light Cinema