A programme looking at the role of space exploration in experimental film, featuring archive footage by pioneers of early cinema alongside animation and contemporary artists’ moving image works. In parallel with the Cosmonauts’ exhibition currently at the Science Museum, we investigate cinematic reactions to outer space, from the first footage filmed through a telescope to contemporary works by artists interested in topics such as gravity and its loss, space exploration and representation of the limitless. Programme curated by Giulia Saccogna.

Film running order:

Eclipse of the Moon Topical Budget 530-1 UK, 1921, 2 mins

Voyage autour d’une étoile Gaston Velle France, 1906, 5 min

Les Astronautes Walerian Borowczyk; Chris Marker France, 1959, 12 min

Synchronisation Rimas Sakalauskas Lithuania, 2009, 8 min

Shadow Sites II Jananne Al-Ani UK, 2011, 9 min

A Trip to the Planets uncredited USA, 1920, 16 min

Moon Christian Volckman; Raphael Thierry France, 2013, 4 min

Eclipse Jeanne Liotta US, 2005, 3 min

Brilliant Noise Semiconductor UK, 2006, 6 min

Particles in Space Len Lye US, 1979, 4 min

http://www.micromacrofilm.org/a-cosmonauts-trip.html

Programme curated by Giulia Saccogna. With introductions by Giulia Saccogna, Doug Millard, Senior Curator of the Cosmonauts exhibition at Science Museum, and Dr Mike Allen, space expert and Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London.