Two Distant Strangers is a short film directed by Travon Free and co-directed by Martin Desmond Roe. It centers around a young Black graphic designer named Carter James who tries to get home to his dog after spending the night with a woman named Perri. However, he keeps getting stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive a deadly encounter with a white police officer named Merk.
In each iteration of the loop, Carter tries to avoid the confrontation with Merk, but inevitably ends up getting killed in some way. Each time he resets, he wakes up next to Perri and has to figure out how to break the cycle. He tries everything from trying to cooperate with Merk to fighting back, but nothing seems to work.
As the loops continue, Carter begins to feel a sense of hopelessness and frustration at the injustice of it all. He realizes that no matter what he does, he may never be able to escape the cycle of violence and racism that he is trapped in. Eventually, he finds a way to break the loop, but it comes at a great cost.
Two Distant Strangers is a powerful and timely exploration of systemic racism and police brutality in America. It was released on Netflix in April 2021 and won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film later that year.