MUST SEE AT HOME : SPACESHIP EARTH directed by MATT WOLF

Tonight; SATURDAY, May 9th and Sun May 2020

SPACESHIP EARTH directed by MATT WOLF

I can not think of a more timely film to watch right now for each of us in volunteer lock up. I hope all of you are practicing social distancing and mask-wearing when you are outside. "Spaceship Earth", which world premiered at Sundance Film festival 2020 should be a must-see as you stay inside,

I think SPACESHIP EARTH was the most compelling documentary I saw at the Sundance Film Festival last January., It tells the story of an experiment called Biosphere 2. An attempt to create a safe and self-maintained container that could be used for human transit in space when that became a possibility. ( this is pre- Elon Musk)

While it sounds like science fiction it actually happened in real life.

SPACESHIP EARTH is a real doozie!

It begins in Haigh-Asbury in the late '60s with a collective that formed that was determined to take the hippie ethos and make a better world. Led by a charismatic leader it does not in my view constitute a cult. This was a collective of smart people with common goals. Most interesting to me is that this group choose not to use drugs and didn't.

What we see is what fun they had making live theater which was more influenced by Grotosfski, Chaiken (Open theater), the San Francisco Mime Troup, and the Living Theater than Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg.
Eventually, they left SF and moved to New Mexico. There they found interesting projects to sustain the collective that met their goals.

When they decided collectively it was time for their next adventure, they build a large seaworthy vessel! Really they did! They sailed around the world on that ship. Stopping off to do a variety of projects here and there that is captured in the archival film they, self- consciously, produced themselves. (Note: an unbelievable treasure trove for Matt Wolf to mine,)

They boarded the ship each time after concluding and documenting each of the completed projects. Some of which are still operative. The archives demonstrated the strong work ethic they had meshed together with their creative imagination to have a dream and to actually make it happen.

The idea of space travel and how humans could survive the journey to another planet next intrigued them. They set about building a new-age ark for humans to travel in space.

In 1990 a Texas billionaire agreed to finance the project and Biosphere 2 was born,

In 1991 eight visionaries agreed to spend two years quarantined inside of a self-engineered replica of Earth’s ecosystem called BIOSPHERE 2. They entered to great media attention with the fanfare of a highly crafted spectacle. Theater for a space-age adventure.

The 8 enter the Biosphere in bright red uniforms that look as if Pat Fields was in cahoots. When the doors were closed and locked it became their home for the next two years.

The 8 had having been a part of the design team for the earthbound spaceship began their experiment of what would be needed to survive and thrive on a space journey. Talk about a challenge: 2 years of social isolation. How they found solutions is just one of the threads. Science is another. SPACESHIP EARTH moves through time without dropping a beat. Never boring and sometimes, quite frankly, scary.

What happened inside and outside is the arc of the storytelling, I couldn't take my eye off the screen. I, as a viewer, was captured and in a cinematic way placed inside the capsule. Ground support teams were in constant contact. But I felt as if I was living inside the Biosphere. What happened to each of them was very human despite the serenity of nature inside the Biosphere

What happened, in the end, is a shocker, Sone could say the devil himself showed up Or one could say the "fallen angel" had landed,
I realized that based on Matt Wolf's previous work on subjects including the musician Arthur Russell, the TV archivist Marion Stokes, the civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, etc, he had shown his natural affinity for people who dreamed outside the box. SPACESHIP EARTH is a perfect match of a story to a director.

Wolf has delivered an entertaining film on a subject almost forgotten and a film the challenges one on many levels It does not so much look to the past but to the future, I left the screening thinking what is to be learned from this extraordinary vision interrupted.I finally answered it for myself. let's talk after you have seen SPACESHIP EARTH

You can watch SPACESHIP EARTH on Vimeo. In partnership with NEON, INDIEwire is donating its share of the $3.50 ticket to COVID-19 relief, (thank You! INDIEwire) what you do is go to Vimeo.com, sign in if you have an account, or open a free account. Once done donate $3.50 and you with are set to go. The ticket is usable for 72 hours.

It is also on Hulu and other streaming channels, Hulu is offering a free trial period if you do not have it now

tonight Sat May 9th and 10 th there will be an after screening online
Q&A both on the East and West coast
WATCH THE Q&A

Saturday, May 9th - 5pm PST/8pm EST
Hosted by Atlas Obscura, Moderated by Levar Burton
WATCH THE Q&A

Sunday, May 10th - 2pm PST/5pm EST
Hosted by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Moderated by Tim League
WATCH THE Q&A