A Space Program
Apr 14, 2016
(Van Neistat & Tom Sachs, United States, 2015, DCP, 72 min)
Tom Sachs in attendance!
Seattle premiere!
Playfully experimental filmmaker Van Neistat has given artist Tom Sachs’s 2012 performance piece of the same name the film treatment. Sachs’s A Space Program takes DIY to another level with the meticulous simulation of a NASA mission to Mars. Using found objects and available materials like plywood and Tyvek, the “astronauts” construct everything from their space suits to the mission control console to the ship itself. Even the film credits are hand lettered. Yet alongside the project’s earnestness is a charmingly oddball sense of humor. The mission’s stated objective is to find love on Mars, but if not, to leave some love there. Supplies include whiskey, scented candles, and Al Green tapes.
For all A Space Program’s whimsy, Sachs’s passionate attention to detail creates a deeply immersive atmosphere, fueled by a childlike sense of wonder and imagination.
“...as a tribute to NASA, “A Space Program” is rich in the core elements that have always propelled humanity’s flights of fancy: imagination and the right tools.” -The New York Times
A Space Program opens at SIFF on April 15th.