I wanted to highlight a delightful little indie documentary I've recently seen. I guess I'm a little bit late to the party, as it was released in 2012, but it just showed up on my Netflix recommended suggestions list for streaming, and I watched it.
I recommend this film for space enthusiasts, or for any of my readers. It was fun, informative, and instead of merely being another "space" documentary (as much as I love them) it had some unique offerings. For example, it highlights the moon colony campaigner C.D. Carson (The Luna Project), as well as astronaut-turned-artist Alan Bean (Oh how I do covet some prints!), and more.
Trailers: "Lunarcy!" Explores the Quirky Idea of Colonizing the Moon
The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival is now underway, but there are still plenty more trailers to share for the event's documentary program. Today's featured selection is Lunarcy!, a film by Simon Ennis, one of a number of TIFF titles by people making their feature documentary debut. There are actually three separate teaser trailers for this one, each introducing a character with interests in human settlement of the moon. The first video, above, profiles Christopher Carson, whose proclaimed destiny is to be the first lunar resident.
How might he achieve that dream? Maybe he can meet up with the subject seen in teaser #2, Dennis Hope. This guy claims to own land on the lunar surface, and he's been selling properties for years. Apparently former U.S. presidents are among his buyers. Hmm. Does he also have a bridge or some Florida swampland available? Here's his spot:
And finally, here's the third teaser, which introduces Peter Kokh, a man who doesn't necessarily aim to live on the moon, but in The Moon Miners' Manifesto, he has been speculating about what life will be like there once someone does.
Lunarcy! is one of the docs at TIFF this year I'm most curious about. There's a quirky Errol Morris feel about it as well as a Don Quixote element to Carson's "impossible dream," as festival programmer Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo calls it. She also writes, in the TIFF guide, that the doc is "energetic, illuminating and often hilarious ... pointedly depicting the humour inherent in its subjects' endeavours without condescending to them."
It also should be an interesting compliment to fellow TIFF selection Room 237, which examines numerous analyses and theories pertaining to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, including the belief that the film is full of confessional hints about the director's involvement in staging the 1969 moon landing.
