" 'Awards Chatter' Podcast - Sean Combs ('Two Distant Strangers')".
"'Two Distant Strangers' on Netflix Is a Time Loop Story With a Powerful Twist". " 'Two Distant Strangers' Makes Sure Oscar Voters Don't Forget George Floyd".
Woke, television series similar in content.
The following year, Netflix released Two Distant Strangers in collaboration with NowThis, excluding any credit of Kao's name or that she had anything to do with the original idea for the movie in any way. Furthermore, in 2020, during the George Floyd protests, social media news outlet NowThis contacted Kao about featuring the film on their Facebook and Instagram pages. The contents of Kao's film were similar to the plot of Two Distant Strangers, which are both about a black man trying to relive the same day over and over until he can survive a police altercation. In April 2021, Cynthia Kao posted a video on the social media site TikTok alleging that this film plagiarized a short film she had directed in December 2016 titled Groundhog Day For a Black Man.Groundhog Day for a Black Man (2016), directed by Cynthia Kao.Two Distant Strangers has been compared to other films that share a similar premise: In March 2021, Netflix acquired the distribution rights and made the film available from April 9. As the song " The Way It Is" plays, names of Black Americans who have died in encounters with police are listed. Undeterred, Carter leaves Perri's apartment to make yet another effort to get home. Carter wakes up once more in Perri's bed. Merk then shoots him in the back, while a pool of blood starts forming in the shape of Africa, and says "See you tomorrow, kid". But as Carter turns to enter his apartment building, Merk starts applauding what he calls Carter's "noble performance", revealing that Merk remembers the previous loops too. The journey ends without mishap Merk and Carter get out of the patrol car and shake hands. Carter tells him about the time loop, offering Merk evidence by predicting what people around them will do next. Īfter 99 deaths, Carter decides to discuss the situation with Officer Merk. In one version of the loop, riot police burst into Perri's apartment, mistaking it for a different apartment because the door number is hanging upside down, and shoot him there. Each encounter ends with Carter being killed by the police, then waking up in the bed of his date, Perri. Merk wonders whether Carter is smoking a joint and wants to search his bag. In New York City, Black graphic designer Carter James tries to get home to his dog, Jeter, the morning after a first date, only to find himself trapped in a time loop in which he is repeatedly confronted in the street by a white NYPD officer, Merk.