(Star)

Director: Johann Lurf

Institute History

  • 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Description

A film that defies easy explanation, ? is filmmaker Johann Lurf’s inventive examination of how outer space has been portrayed in movies.

You don’t have to be a scientist to find space fascinating. Few things in the universe have enthralled, perplexed, and inspired such a diverse group of people, from astronomers and philosophers to artists and ordinary people walking at night. Artists were so inspired by the heavens that they created artwork of celestial objects—even when you see a “photo” of other planets and stars, it is often an artist’s rendering.

Lurf playfully shows how cinema turned the stars into endless metaphors, dreams, and warm blankets. There is no story or characters—only movie scenes worked together outside of their contexts. We put our own thoughts into the stunning scenes while each clip’s sound design presents us with ambience, brief dialogue, or loud music. The editing enthralls us as space is not depicted the same in every clip. If you have a love affair with movies and the sky, ? is the ultimate romantic art film.

— M.P.

Screening Details

  • Section: New Frontier Films & Performances
  • Film Type: US Narrative Feature
  • Country: Austria
  • Language: Japanese/French/German/Russian/Spanish/Dutch/Italian/Swedish/Hindi/Finnish/Norwegian/Bulgarian/Portuguese
  • Run Time: 99 min.
As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]