What time is it now?

What do you mean Ïwhat time is it now?Ó

Following a dream sequence between Alex (Inderkum) and Ricky (Lam), we observe AlexÌs first glance of Ricky on the train.  The film opens with this ordinary question, but answers with a complicated reply. 

Ricky lives inside a cube, much likes that of a desktop on a computer.  Hovering in an isolated dark flame within the film, this cube is RickyÌs home and means of accessing, via a permeable screen, sights and sounds from around the world. 

Alex lives in a cube also, a small room in a rural town in Switzerland.  One day, when Alex is on his way to catch a bus with his friend Priska, he finds an interesting rock along the roadside that has a small hole in the middle clustered with small crystals. 

Ricky, haunted by the sound of a mobile phone ringing, has been sleeping on buses and trains in an attempt to avoid the annoying noise, however, when Ricky awakes, he always finds himself immediately back inside the cube.  Eventually he realizes that the ring tone is coming not from within his cube, but from outside the frame from Alex's bedroom. 

"Hello!" Ricky yells from his desktop cube.  His voice rings out from the rock, which Alex has placed on his windowsill.  Shocked, Alex holds the stone in his hand and replies, "Is it a wireless speaker?"

So the story begins with these two boys from different parts of the world who become connected by this ordinary rock.  Through the negotiation of this new found communication, the film explores AlexÌs attempts at communicating with things in which he receives no response (i.e. air, emotion, time) as well as his continuing search for the individual in his dreams, Ricky. 

Alex writes letters to the ephemeral and inanimate, which he finds is similar to his communication with the rock (also similar to conversation made over a web cam). These events lead to the combining of Alex and RickyÌs bodies, both becoming digitized under the effects of the sharp and unapproachable technology.  

By the end, this equilibrium makes RickyÌs digital body or existence more capable of reaching AlexÌs natural form.  

"Buffering..." is a story about love and loneliness, location and dislocation without actual places.  It is the journey of Alex and Ricky in search for each otherÌs existence.