Chronovisor

ERIC SAYS Rarely has a film (I’m talking about in the entire history of moving images, folks) lodged in my brain like Chronovisor. The film primarily unfolds as a piece of archival research—and yet it is very much a thriller. As its protagonist digs into the history of the titular technology—a device that, a google search will verify, a Benedictine priest actually claimed to have invented in the 1970s to look backwards in time and witness the crucifixion of Jesus—you’ll find yourself pouring over the pages of text and images just as frantically as Jake Gyllenhaal in Zodiac. This film, created by a pair of former Baltimoreans, has from its earliest frames a unique way of bringing text alive on screen, making the act of reading thrillingly cinematic. And yet, without giving anything away, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the film-language innovations of this little miracle of a movie.

Chronovisor stands alone at the intersection of experimental film and narrative entertainment—and everyone I know who’s seen it can’t stop talking about it. It wouldn’t really have been New/Next this year if I hadn’t found a way to feature Chronovisor, a film about the past that is absolutely one of the most future-facing films of 2026.