The New EP of D͜͡I͜͡R͜͡E͜͡C͜͡T͜͡O͜͡R͜͡S͜͡ C͜͡O͜͡M͜͡M͜͡E͜͡N͜͡T͜͡A͜͡R͜͡Y͜͡ is now LIVE with Oscar Boyson @skipmccoy as his directorial debut-- Our Hero, Balthazar -- continues to sell out independent theaters all around the country. We cover lots of ground, from his start with the Neistat Brothers to his wild and creative producing adventures with the Safdies, Noah Baumbach and more!
The Code (2025) dir. Eugene Kotlyarenko
Set during the pandemic in 2021, the film follows Celine and Jay, a couple retreating to a house in Joshua Tree in an attempt to repair their increasingly unstable relationship. What begins as a documentary project about modern life gradually transforms into a spiral of surveillance, paranoia, digital exposure, and emotional insecurity.
Eugene Kotlyarenko constructs the narrative through an overload of contemporary image-making systems: phones, hidden cameras, surveillance footage, screen recordings, and split-screen compositions constantly compete for attention. The result is intentionally chaotic and disorienting, mirroring the fragmented experience of living online.
At the center, Dasha Nekrasova and Peter Vack portray a couple trapped between intimacy and performance, suspicion and desire. Their unstable chemistry becomes part of the film’s larger examination of mediated relationships.
The visual style is frenetic and hyper-digital, combining rapid editing, simultaneous image streams, and shifting formats into an overwhelming audiovisual collage. Conversations rarely unfold conventionally; instead, information arrives in layers and interruptions.
The film reflects on surveillance culture, insecurity, internet identity, and emotional alienation in the age of constant connectivity. Rather than simply condemning digital life, it attempts to capture the confusion, overstimulation, and strange intimacy produced by contemporary online existence.
Premiering at the Fantasia International Film Festival, the film stands as an ambitious and abrasive portrait of relationships shaped by technological saturation and social paranoia.
Production Companies
Field Trip Media
#EugeneKotlyarenko #TheCode #IndependentCinema #ExperimentalFilm #cinemamonamour
NYC, tonight’s the night @villageeastbyangelika
Exclusive screening of OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR at Village East by Angelika.
🎬 Friday, May 8 | 8:40PM
Stick around for a Q&A with Co-Writer/Producer Ricky Camilleri @rickycamillerinyc moderated by Eugene Kotlyarenko @madabouteug
Tickets at ourherobalthazar.com
Director's Commentary is BACK 👊🎞❤️ EP46 with the thoughtful writer-director-star of BuNnYlOvR @katarina.zhu Listen on Patreon for free as we talk about the journey to her big debut and everything that came after, in our throwback Siskel and Ebert theater chairs! So happy to be back on the air with this great episode 😘🎬
What can movies illuminate about life online? Eugene Kotlyarenko, director of "The Code," & Peter Vack, director of "," spoke with On The Rag founder Sammy Loren about post-internet cinema and art's responsibility to stay with the times. 🔗 in bio, their conversation is online!
Feat. @dash_cam@perfect_angelgirl@me_betseybrown
Images
1. Left: Peter Vack; right: Eugene Kotlyarenko. Photo: JP
"Juice" Caballero / @juice_caballero
2-3. / 6-7. Stills from The Code, 2024
4-5 / 8. Stills from , 2024
#spikeartmagazine #spikeart #spike
0s & 1s Blu-rays are available for pre-order on the @vinegarsyndrome website NOW!
This special limited edition slipcover (designed by Victoria Vincent) is limited to 1,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.
James lives easy Life 2.0. But when his computer is lost, his reality spirals down a nihilistic adventure that questions our dependency on digital life. Told entirely via apps, games, the web and social networks making up our daily life.
Directed by: Eugene Kotlyarenko (@madabouteug ) Starring: Morgan Krantz, Jeremy Blackman, Hannah Hunt
2011 / 86 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Additional info:
- Commentary Track with Writer/Director Eugene Kotlyarenko, Editor Drew King, Writer/Actor Morgan Krantz, VFX Artist Russell Sadeghpour, Actor Ryan Reyes, Producer Michael Shifflett
- 0s & 1s Deleted Scenes
- Interviews with Writer/Director Eugene Kotlyarenko, writer/Producer Michael Shifflett, Visual Effect Suppervisor/Producer Andrew Shwartz, Visual Effect Artists Russell Sadeghpour, Actress Hannah Hunt, and Actor Morgan Krantz
- VIDEOTHING: A Maximalist Video Report of The 2007 LA Music Scene by @normaltv
- Video Commentary Track on 0s &1s’ Website
- 0s & 1s Short Film (2007)
- Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Feature Film SKYDIVER (2010)
- Trailer
- 4 New essays by:
Gene McHugh (@gene_mchugh ), Arianna Caserta (@ariannacaserta ), Michael M. Bilandic (@m1kebillz ), and Eugene Kotlyarenko
- New Custom Art by Victoria Vincent (@vewn_ )
Pre-order now!
A bold and playful Ghanaian hand-painted movie poster by the legendary artist Heavy J. for “The Code” directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko and starring actors Dasha Nekrasova and Peter Vack. All credit goes to Kofi and Heavy J for helping make this!!
NM Greenroom: Filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko (2025)
On this ep, NM is joined by filmmaker @madabouteug who you may know as the director of 0s and 1s, Wobble Palace, Spree, and most recently, The Code, which stars @petervackofficial & @dash_cam and is currently streaming on @mubi .
Like much of Eugene’s work, The Code understands itself both as entertainment and as cinema — cinema-in-a-time-when everyone is an editor, cinema-in-a-time-when content has become infinite, empty, a site of projection for viewers-turned-users. We talk about The Code and about the industry, about virality and authoritarianism, slop, identity, empathy, comedy, and success.
