More than 11 years in the making, painter Scott Reeder’s dystopian sci-fi film, Moon Dust, is set to debut at Anthology Film Archives on November 10 and 11.
The film is layered with takeaways from Reeder’s experiences over the years, dating back to his time spent working on webisode series and site ZeroTV—what he describes as a pre-Youtube experiment in an essay in Artforum.
What do you get when a painter directs a film as if it’s a painting? Part color theory turned decade retrospective turned contemporary dystopian comedy. The film follows a staff at a once popular fictional moon resort (Mars is more the rage now-a-days, obviously). Reeder simultaneously worked on the film and his painting, often exhibiting art that also later functioned as sets for the movie and casting friends, non-actors. The artist was interested in organic interactions between the amateur actors and the painted sets. Through the years, Reeder conceptualized plots and character development through distinct color themes that allowed for a unified appearance despite low definition video quality and the actors’ fluctuating appearances.
Will the film hold up against the likes of beloved artist films such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou or say Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Moon Dust will be shown at the Anthology Film Archives at 8:00 p.m. on November 10 and 11. You can buy tickets here.