Filmmaker Matt Wolf delivered uncommon insight in Teenage (2014) -- reviewed by Dylan Sharp for our site here -- and again in Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (2019), as well as several doc shorts, and it looks like he's done it again with Spaceship Earth, heading for U.S. release on May 8, 2020. Officially, "Spaceship Earth is the true, stranger-than-fiction, adventure of eight visionaries who in 1991 spent two years quarantined inside of a self-engineered replica of Earth's ecosystem called Biosphere 2. "The experiment was a worldwide phenomenon, chronicling daily existence in the face of life-threatening ecological disaster and a growing criticism that it was nothing more than a cult. The bizarre story is both a cautionary tale and a hopeful lesson of how a...
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- 4/21/2020
- Screen Anarchy
After a winter lineup of documentaries covering current issues like women’s rights and racial injustice, the spring and summer season of Independent Lens will tackle such timely topics as America’s mental health crisis, climate change, globalization, and the role news media plays in our everyday lives. It will also profile several trail-blazing figures.
Broadcast on PBS, the acclaimed “Independent Lens” highlights thought-provoking documentaries, many of which are co-funded and co-produced by Independent Television Service (Itvs). Films making their broadcast debuts from April through June include Kenneth Paul Rosenberg M.D.’s “Bedlam,” an intimate examination of the mental health crisis in America, Brett Story’s critically acclaimed “The Hottest August,” which paints a portrait of collective anxiety around the looming threat of climate change, and Bill Haney’s “Jim Allison: Breakthrough,” which chronicles the work of the Nobel Prize-winning visionary doctor who discovered a way to defeat cancer.
Broadcast on PBS, the acclaimed “Independent Lens” highlights thought-provoking documentaries, many of which are co-funded and co-produced by Independent Television Service (Itvs). Films making their broadcast debuts from April through June include Kenneth Paul Rosenberg M.D.’s “Bedlam,” an intimate examination of the mental health crisis in America, Brett Story’s critically acclaimed “The Hottest August,” which paints a portrait of collective anxiety around the looming threat of climate change, and Bill Haney’s “Jim Allison: Breakthrough,” which chronicles the work of the Nobel Prize-winning visionary doctor who discovered a way to defeat cancer.
- 3/25/2020
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
Variety can exclusively reveal the trailer for “Playing Hard” director Jean-Simon Chartier’s feature documentary “They Call Me Dr. Miami,” which is being shopped to buyers at the Efm this week.
Commissioned by Documentary Channel and set to bow at the Miami International Film Festival next month, the film follows Dr. Michael Salzhauer — also known as Dr. Miami — who is one of the most famous plastic surgeons in the U.S., and the first doctor to livestream graphic procedures such as tummy tucks and breast augmentations on Snapchat, where he has more than two million followers.
With a two-year patient waiting list, the film examines how Salzhauer grapples with the reality of selfie culture, backlash to his controversial videos and his status as a social media superstar, all while balancing his roles as a father of five, and a conservative Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath.
New York-based doc specialist...
Commissioned by Documentary Channel and set to bow at the Miami International Film Festival next month, the film follows Dr. Michael Salzhauer — also known as Dr. Miami — who is one of the most famous plastic surgeons in the U.S., and the first doctor to livestream graphic procedures such as tummy tucks and breast augmentations on Snapchat, where he has more than two million followers.
With a two-year patient waiting list, the film examines how Salzhauer grapples with the reality of selfie culture, backlash to his controversial videos and his status as a social media superstar, all while balancing his roles as a father of five, and a conservative Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath.
New York-based doc specialist...
- 2/19/2020
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Neon has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to “Spaceship Earth,” Matt Wolf’s documentary about the Biosphere 2 project from 1991 that made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Neon announced Thursday.
The film played in the U.S. Documentary competition and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Neon now looks to have had an active Sundance after partnering with Hulu on the record-breaking sale for “Palm Springs” and more recently acquiring the Elisabeth Moss thriller “Shirley.”
Also Read: 'Spaceship Earth' Director Matt Wolf on What Drew Him to Saga of Biosphere 2 (Video)
Using archive material and present-day interviews with surviving Biospherians, the documentary follows a group of counter-cultural visionaries who, in 1991, built an enormous replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. When eight “biospherians” went to live sealed inside, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations. Their epic adventure is a cautionary tale about the forces that threaten our planet,...
The film played in the U.S. Documentary competition and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Neon now looks to have had an active Sundance after partnering with Hulu on the record-breaking sale for “Palm Springs” and more recently acquiring the Elisabeth Moss thriller “Shirley.”
Also Read: 'Spaceship Earth' Director Matt Wolf on What Drew Him to Saga of Biosphere 2 (Video)
Using archive material and present-day interviews with surviving Biospherians, the documentary follows a group of counter-cultural visionaries who, in 1991, built an enormous replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. When eight “biospherians” went to live sealed inside, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations. Their epic adventure is a cautionary tale about the forces that threaten our planet,...
- 2/13/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Fresh off its Oscar victory for “Parasite,” Neon has acquired worldwide rights to “Spaceship Earth,” an acclaimed documentary about the construction of a biosphere. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the grand jury prize.
Neon was an active buyer at the festival, partnering with Hulu in a record-breaking bid to buy “Palm Springs,” a comedy with Andy Samberg, as well as nabbing “Shirley,” a drama with Elisabeth Moss.
“Spaceship Earth” uses archive material and present-day interviews with surviving “biospherians,” following a group of counter-cultural visionaries who, in 1991, built an enormous replica of earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. The hope had been to build a self-sustaining living enclosure that could have futuristic applications. When eight “biospherians” went to live sealed inside the airtight Arizona desert vivarium, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations. “Spaceship Earth” was directed by Matt...
Neon was an active buyer at the festival, partnering with Hulu in a record-breaking bid to buy “Palm Springs,” a comedy with Andy Samberg, as well as nabbing “Shirley,” a drama with Elisabeth Moss.
“Spaceship Earth” uses archive material and present-day interviews with surviving “biospherians,” following a group of counter-cultural visionaries who, in 1991, built an enormous replica of earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. The hope had been to build a self-sustaining living enclosure that could have futuristic applications. When eight “biospherians” went to live sealed inside the airtight Arizona desert vivarium, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations. “Spaceship Earth” was directed by Matt...
- 2/13/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The experiment known as Biosphere 2 may be best remembered now — when remembered at all — as something that spawned “Bio-Dome,” the godawful 1996 comedy that is nonetheless many people’s favorite movie involving Pauly Shore or Stephen Baldwin. Its very loose real-life inspiration also had elements of bad farce, at least in the realm of unflattering media scrutiny and, to an extent, poor judgment by its administrators.
Yet “Spaceship Earth” reclaims Biosphere 2 — thus named to remind us that Numero Uno is fragile Earth itself — from the pop-culture-footnote dustbin, capturing the spirit of genuine idealism and earnest scientific inquiry with which it was launched. This unexpectedly lovely documentary from Matt Wolf (“Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project”) duly chronicles the two-year period in which eight carefully vetted experts shared a vast, airtight Arizona desert vivarium meant to be entirely self-sustaining, a sort of dry run for a projected future of such human habitats in outer space.
Yet “Spaceship Earth” reclaims Biosphere 2 — thus named to remind us that Numero Uno is fragile Earth itself — from the pop-culture-footnote dustbin, capturing the spirit of genuine idealism and earnest scientific inquiry with which it was launched. This unexpectedly lovely documentary from Matt Wolf (“Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project”) duly chronicles the two-year period in which eight carefully vetted experts shared a vast, airtight Arizona desert vivarium meant to be entirely self-sustaining, a sort of dry run for a projected future of such human habitats in outer space.
- 2/3/2020
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
The late Marion Stokes, the enigmatic woman at the center of the new documentary Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, lived a series of contradictions.
Her nurse described Stokes as “a giving and loving person,” yet she did not suffer fools gladly and for years was estranged from her only son. She believed in bridging political divides, but a stepdaughter characterized her as “dogmatic.” And in the words of director Matt Wolf she was both “reclusive” and an “activist,” which sounds like a contradiction in terms.
About one thing there is no dispute: Stokes (1929-2012) proved doggedly persistent, especially in the pursuit that came to dominate her life—keeping a close eye on the news media. For over 30 years she monitored television on an unprecedented scale, at the local level in Philadelphia where she lived and on the national level of broadcast and cable TV outlets.
“She recorded television 24 hours a day on multiple channels,...
Her nurse described Stokes as “a giving and loving person,” yet she did not suffer fools gladly and for years was estranged from her only son. She believed in bridging political divides, but a stepdaughter characterized her as “dogmatic.” And in the words of director Matt Wolf she was both “reclusive” and an “activist,” which sounds like a contradiction in terms.
About one thing there is no dispute: Stokes (1929-2012) proved doggedly persistent, especially in the pursuit that came to dominate her life—keeping a close eye on the news media. For over 30 years she monitored television on an unprecedented scale, at the local level in Philadelphia where she lived and on the national level of broadcast and cable TV outlets.
“She recorded television 24 hours a day on multiple channels,...
- 12/2/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
In the early days of network television’s slide into wall-to-wall news coverage, Marion Stokes started a project with the flick of a button. It would consume the rest of her life and result in the creation of tens of thousands of video tapes, all of which were filled with hours upon hours of wide-ranging television footage, most of it focused on the behemoth that is news-based entertainment. A rabble-rouser, activist, and major intellect, Stokes had long been interested in the way media shaped public perception, and as the influence of televised media grew, she became obsessed with capturing as much footage as she could, all the better to see the world changing through a TV tube.
Matt Wolf’s remarkable new documentary “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” uses Stokes’ recording obsession as a way to explore both Stokes herself and the world she literally committed to video tape. The results are fascinating,...
Matt Wolf’s remarkable new documentary “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” uses Stokes’ recording obsession as a way to explore both Stokes herself and the world she literally committed to video tape. The results are fascinating,...
- 10/2/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
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