Spaceship Earth

About

In 1991, eight capable men and women were sealed into Biosphere 2, an airtight terrarium in the Arizona desert containing a miniature replica of Earth’s environment. Funded by a Texas oil tycoon hoping to acquire licensable technologies for space colonization, the mission of Biosphere 2 was to maintain an isolated, sustainable environment for two years. It was a mission that became a dystopian simulation of ecological crisis, after which a corporate consultant took over the venture—and disappeared the data.

The investors designed Biosphere 2 to generate a lot of press, but little was revealed about the people who created it. Using archive material and present-day interviews with surviving Biospherians, director Matt Wolf brings us this spirited documentary that follows the gregarious and visionary countercultural collective over half of a century, as they conducted experiments around the globe leading up to Biosphere 2. If Spaceship Earth is a cautionary tale about the forces that threaten our planet, it is also an inspirational tribute to what a small creative group can achieve.

Closed captioning is available for this film.

YEAR 2019

CATEGORY U.S. Documentary Competition

COUNTRY U.S.A.

RUN TIME 116 min

COMPANY RadicalMedia and Stacey Reiss Productions

EMAIL stacey@staceyreiss.com

PHONE (917) 969-6311

Credits

Director
Producers
Editor
Executive Producers
Composer
Director of Photography
Co-Producer
Story Producers
Associate Editor
Motion Graphics
Music Supervisor

Artist Bio

Matt Wolf

Matt Wolf’s feature documentaries include Wild Combination, about the cult cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell; Teenage, about early youth culture and the birth of teenagers; and Recorder, about the activist Marion Stokes, who recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years. His short films include Bayard & Me about the civil rights activist Bayard Rustin; It's Me, Hilary, about the Eloise illustrator Hilary Knight; and I Remember, about the artist Joe Brainard.