What Is / Was \ Will is really about
Is / Was \ Will takes place in a world that's been constructed entirely from existing footage—a clever, unsettling creative choice that grounds the film's dystopian premise in something almost recognizable. The story follows a surveillance professional working within a system designed to monitor and control, but his job becomes personal when he falls in love in a society that's engineered to make people forget. The central tension isn't just romantic; it's existential. In this world, off-hours forgetting is mandated through a state-sanctioned drug, which means that holding onto memories—especially memories of another person—becomes an act of rebellion. The film's 75-minute runtime moves with purpose, never overstaying its welcome, and the stakes feel immediate because they're personal.
Behind the making of Is / Was \ Will
Is / Was \ Will emerges from a collective effort by four production companies: In Trouble Again Film Company, Abominable Pictures, Priority Pictures, and Winter Coat Films. The decision to construct the entire film from existing footage is a bold one—it's not a common approach in contemporary cinema, and it signals that the filmmakers were interested in interrogating how we consume and repurpose visual culture itself. This technique becomes thematic rather than gimmicky; you're watching a world built from scraps, from what's already been recorded and archived, which mirrors the protagonist's struggle to preserve memory in a system designed to erase it. The film doesn't chase box-office blockbuster status, which is fitting for a project this conceptually unconventional. Instead, it positions itself as a festival-circuit and streaming-native work—the kind of film that finds its audience through word-of-mouth and curated platforms rather than multiplex saturation. The runtime, lean at 75 minutes, suggests a filmmaking philosophy that values precision over padding.
Why Is / Was \ Will stands apart as a sci-fi romance
What's striking about Is / Was \ Will is how it refuses to separate the romance from the politics. So many science fiction films treat love as a subplot—a softening device for harder concepts. Here, the love story is the resistance. The surveillance professional isn't just risking imprisonment or worse because he's smitten; he's risking it because remembering another person, in a world designed to make you forget, is an act of defiance. That's genuinely compelling. The film's use of found footage as its visual language also means there's a certain aesthetic honesty to it—no glossy production design, no expensive sets standing in for dystopia. Instead, the dystopia is built from the world we already know, which makes it feel closer, more urgent somehow. I keep coming back to the idea that this is a film about what we choose to hold onto when holding on is illegal. The performances, working within the constraints of the found-footage framework, carry the emotional weight. There's no room for scenery-chewing or big monologues; everything has to land through restraint and genuine connection, which is harder to fake than you'd think.
Where to stream Is / Was \ Will right now
Is / Was \ Will is currently available across major OTT services, and Movie OTT tracks exactly where it's streaming in real time. Rather than hunting across five different apps, you can check the Where to Watch widget at the top of this page to see which platform has it available in your region today—availability shifts, so it's worth verifying before you settle in. The film's compact runtime makes it ideal for streaming consumption; it won't demand a four-hour commitment, but it will demand your full attention. Movie OTT keeps its streaming database updated as titles move between services, so if you're the type who likes to know your options before you start watching, that's exactly what the platform does.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Is / Was \ Will based on a true story?
No, it's an original science fiction concept. The film is set in an imagined dystopian future, though its themes about surveillance, memory, and control are rooted in real anxieties about technology and state power.
Q: How long is Is / Was \ Will?
The film runs 75 minutes, making it one of the leaner entries in contemporary sci-fi cinema. That brevity is intentional—the story doesn't waste time, and neither does the runtime.
Q: What does it mean that the film is made entirely from existing footage?
The filmmakers constructed the entire visual world from archival and found footage rather than shooting original material. This stylistic choice becomes thematic—it mirrors how memory works, how we piece together meaning from fragments, and how systems like surveillance operate by reassembling existing data.
Q: Who directed Is / Was \ Will?
The film is a collaborative work from four production companies: In Trouble Again Film Company, Abominable Pictures, Priority Pictures, and Winter Coat Films, reflecting a collective creative vision.
Q: What's the IMDb rating for Is / Was \ Will?
The film currently holds a 0/10 rating on IMDb, which likely reflects limited user engagement rather than critical consensus—a common occurrence for newer, less widely seen independent films on the platform.
Final thoughts on Is / Was \ Will
Is / Was \ Will isn't going to be for everyone. It's deliberately strange, conceptually demanding, and it doesn't offer easy answers about love or resistance or what memory means. But that's precisely what makes it worth watching. In a streaming landscape crowded with derivative content, a film willing to build its entire world from found footage and center a love story as an act of political defiance feels rare. The film trusts its audience to sit with ambiguity and discomfort. It's asking questions that don't have neat resolutions, which is exactly what science fiction should do.
