MOONRISE
An experimental film that explores our ancient and complex relationship with the Moon.
A commercially-driven, international Space Race has propelled us to this moment in the 21st century: within a few years, the Moon’s surface may be subject to permanent human occupation, its resources aggressively mined for profit, and its ancient nature-spaces polluted by private industry.
Do we want to stand by silently as such irreparable damage is caused to our sister satellite? What if we actually listened to what the Moon had to say?
Based on an original poem by award-winning Australian author Ceridwen Dovey, Moonrise is a striking, surreal montage of historical, artistic and scientific lunar imagery that invites us to consider the Moon’s point of view in the face of increasingly exploitative human activity in space.
Sky: A Film Lesson in Nature Studies, 1928.
Courtesy of Prelinger Archives.
“We must learn to approach the Moon as a co-participant in its future, and to see our sister satellite not as a simple repository of raw materials or cosmically irradiated rocks with which we can do what we like, as possessions and property—but as our kin."
- Ceridwen Dovey, Writer & Space Environmentalist
St. Kilda Film Festival | Melbourne
May 21-29 2021
Selected to screen as part of three curated panels of Australian short films:
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Shifting the Gaze: Focus on Women Filmmakers, presented by Women in Film & Television Victoria (WIFT);
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Final Year in Motion: VCE Screening, a selection of films with inspiring messages, distinctive styles, and unique approaches to their subjects, to inspire future filmmakers;
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Tales of Mystery & Imagination, a selection of films exploring other worlds and places through cinema.
Bunjil Place Outdoor Screen Program, Melbourne | Museum of the Moon
June 26 - July 4 2021
Selected to screen as part of a curated program for Museum of the Moon, a giant replica of the moon created by UK artist Luke Jerram, which will be installed at Bunjil Place in Melbourne.
Mimesis Documentary Festival | Boulder, Colorado
August 4-10, 2021
Selected to screen as part of the Biomythophilia block of documentary shorts: a diverse group of documentaries linked by the theme of sustainability, exploring ideas of mythical communion with the land and others, the search for scientific and eco-existential answers, more-than-human solidarity, and the rejection of human exceptionalism.
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Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Making Space for the Social Sciences
August 17, 2021
Screened as part of a panelled session titled Sensemaking about Space.
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LIVEWORKS Festival of Experimental Art 2021 | LIVE FUTURES: Remapping Ecologies | A panel curated by Holly Williams
Thursday, October 21, 2pm
As the inevitability of global warming becomes impossible to ignore and human-caused extinctions become widespread, how might the body-centred practices of the deep ecology movement, activist interventions and the work of contemporary artists inform where we go from here?
How can we reinstate different relationships between humans and the network of animals, organisms, weather and environment that we are inextricably connected to? How can we constructively meet the grief, fear, rage and guilt that marks this time? Where might hope lie?
LIVE FUTURES is a series of curated public conversations that explore the pivotal role of artists in defining the new civic life we are entering, in a sustained period of disruption and change.
Uppsala Short Film Festival | Uppsala, Sweden
October 25-31, 2021
Calcutta International Short Film Festival | Kolkata, India
December 17-19, 2021
Antenna Documentary Film Festival | Sydney, Australia
February 2-13, 2022
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Revelation Perth International Film Festival | Perth, Australia
July 7-17, 2022
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Sydney Science Festival | Space Imaginaries Symposium at the Powerhouse Museum
August 18, 2022