Filmmaker
Kevin Mongelli
Submitted by Kevin Mongelli
Synopsis
Dr. Stephen Emerson, a psychology professor haunted by the past, wrestles with questions about consciousness and the origins of human wisdom. The story opens as Emerson delivers lectures about inherited knowledge, observed by his perceptive students, notably Jake and Alicia. Meanwhile, we meet Edgar, an eccentric inventor driven by an obsession: to unlock secrets of consciousness and past lives using a machine he calls The Dnalym.
In the past, college friends Edgar, Davis, Suzanne, and Julio conduct risky experiments with Edgar's device, enlisting vulnerable subjects in hopes of triggering visions of prior lifetimes. Their tests set off traumatic memories and unexplained phenomena, raising questions about the line between science and the supernatural.
Dr. Emerson’s own life spirals as his emotionally distant marriage to Meghan falters, with both seeking meaning through volunteerism, academic pursuit, and strained connection. Jake, struggling with unresolved childhood trauma from a family tragedy, becomes increasingly drawn to Emerson’s philosophies. Alicia finds herself forced to face the pain underlying her own optimistic exterior.
As time blurs, characters are drawn together through conferences, shared confidences, and intense personal revelations. Through therapy, hypnosis, and Edgar’s continued experiments, suppressed memories surface—some claiming glimpses of other eras and lives. These discoveries push them toward emotional truths about grief, destiny, and the possibility of karmic consequences that transcend a single existence.
The story crescendos as scientific boundaries collapse into the mystical. Emerson, on the verge of despair, must decide if confronting hidden trauma and the weight of past actions can ever bring true healing, or if some mysteries are better left undiscovered. The film ends with its characters transformed by their search for identity and meaning—leaving the audience to contemplate whether the past lives within us all.
Links