If Hollywood’s newfound fascination with outerspace in The Martian, Interstellar, Gravity and others have one feeling let down in terms of adhering to the functional specifics, look no further than A Space Program, a film described by one (very positive) review as a “mockumentary / performance piece [that’s] sci-fi by way of Wes Anderson.” The cinematic condensing of Van Neistat and Tom Sachs‘ New York installation will arrive in limited release this week, and today we’re pleased to present an exclusive clip.
Said to work as “a handmade Space Odyssey–playing wryly with industrial filmmaking, invoking everything from Charles & Ray Eames to chemistry class safety videos (with a dollop of Ed Wood) in a gleeful demonstration of engineering and creativity,” these qualities are fully on display as we can see the crew preparing to launch. Check out the clip below, along with the filmmakers’ how-to guide to prepare for the film.
HOW TO WATCH THIS FILM
1. This movie proves that you don’t need an education to understand—or to make—art.
2. This movie is about a space program made from scratch by hand.
3. This movie is NOT A DOCUMENTARY. It’s an INDUSTRIAL film like the safety videos they make you watch in high school shop class so you don’t cut your fingers off. Some say it’s a comedy.
4. This movie is NOT A PERFORMANCE by actors. We say “demonstration,” not “performance.” It is a demonstration of simple yet sophisticated devices operated by carefully-trained studio team fabricators to send 2 astronauts to Mars.
5. After a meticulous vetting process, each space program team member underwent a grueling 18-month indoctrination.
6. This movie stars the sexually attractive studio team fabricators who built the space program.
7. The studio team is an elite group of do-it-yourselfers—black belt fine artists who practice bricolage.
Bricolage: creation or repair using available limited resources.
8. We go to Mars not to exploit the resources of a new planet but to better understand our resources here on Earth.
9. Our space program sculptures are functional objects. We made this movie to show the aspects of the sculptures that have moving parts and how the sculptures function in our own homemade rituals celebrating science, faith, hard work and freedom.
10. This movie is a love letter to the analog era.
11. This movie demonstrates how astronauts go poop in space.
12. If you believe in God, you need to watch this film.
Van Neistat Tom Sachs
January, 2016
New York City
Directed by the artist’s longtime collaborator, Van Neistat, A SPACE PROGRAM is both a vivid work of art in its own right and a recording of Sachs’ immersive installation/performance, “Space Program 2.0: MARS,” which opened at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2012. For the show, Sachs and his team built an entire space program from scratch. They were guided by the philosophy of bricolage: creating and constructing from available yet limited resources. They ultimately sent two female astronauts to Mars in search of the answer to humankind’s ultimate question… are we alone? A SPACE PROGRAM is a captivating introduction to Sachs’ work for the uninitiated, and required viewing for his longtime fans.
A Space Program opens on March 18th at The Metrograph and will expand in the coming weeks.