New Strains

New Strains (2023) is Co-written and directed by two VCUarts Cinema faculty, Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan. This domestic rom-com chronicles the emergence of a mysterious new variant of an unnamed pandemic and its effects on a squabbling couple (played by Shaw and Kamalakanthan) trapped in lockdown. Shot entirely on a hi-8 camera during the early days of the Covid pandemic, present and memory blur in this surreal portrait of privilege, intimacy, and commitment.

The film debuted at the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won the Tiger Competition Jury Prize and had its US premiere at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Festival in New York later that year.