Ross McElwee
United States | 1979 | 90 min
Language : English

Interviewing the journalist Mary Bubb and an elderly unemployed biker who now leads a motorcycle gang, Ross McElwee and Michel Negroponte blend in the micro-community living off the Cape Canaveral missile station. Following a path of realism unwinding on the thin line that separates absurd and surreal, Space Coast portrays a humankind still clinging to the Earth.

Co-directed with Michel Negroponte, Space Coast stems from Ross McElwee’s experience – when he was a child he was intrigued by the NASA spatial programme – and collective memory – mankind’s interest in the Cape Canaveral community. Interviewing the journalist Mary Bubb, who says she has reported on about 1600 launches, and Papa John Murphy, an elderly unemployed biker who now leads a motorcycle gang, the two film directors explore the micro-community living off the missile station. McElwee and Negroponte adopt a direct cinema approach and relate to the characters as if they were members of the community they aim at describing. Following a path of realism unwinding on the thin line that separates absurd and surreal – as it is the case with the entrepreneur who sidelines as a clown for a local TV – Space Coast portrays a humankind still clinging to the Earth while directing its gaze beyond the stars with both vim and nostalgia.

Giona A. Nazzaro

Atelier Ross McElwee

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