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Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
New documentary shines a light on the environmental damage caused by Elon Musk's tech ambitions
In the broiling shadow of rocket flames and broadband dreams, the inconvenient truths of Elon Musk's techno-utopia are being tidily shuffled out of frame. Canadian director Julien Elie's haunting new black-and-white documentary film, Shifting Baselines, does not shout its message. It doesn't need to. The scorched landscapes of Boca Chica, Texas, where Elon Musk's SpaceX has set up shop, speak for themselves. They whisper of seabirds gone silent, of beaches turned to junkyards, and of a natural world redrawn by a billionaire's imagination. Back in South Africa, the airwaves have been thick with chatter about Musk's Starlink satellite network finally getting a potential regulatory green light to operate here after sustained pressure from Musk himself and the Trump administration. Some have hailed the prospect of Musk's high-speed internet in rural areas as a form of digital salvation for South Africans marooned, in a communications sense, in the hinterland. That there could be benefits, in particular, for rural schools and rural police stations seems clear. It has also been notable how many voices have been happy to overlook the reality that there already exist alternatives, some of which have been pioneered by local businesses at considerable expense; and that the projected costs of a Starlink terminal (around R6,000) and the monthly fee (at least two or three times the average internet contract) will put it far beyond fantasy for the vast majority of South Africa's rural citizens. But amid the enthusiastic flag-waving for this latest piece of technological deliverance, there has been an even more deafening silence about its environmental cost. Starlink junk burning up ozone layer Shifting Baselines' title refers to a concept coined by the marine biologist Daniel Pauly, who explains how each generation accepts the ecological degradation of its lifetime as its new normal. Over time, we forget what the planet of our ancestors once looked like, smelled like, sounded like. It is a quiet kind of erasure. The documentary shows us the once-thriving ecosystems around Musk's rocket launch sites reduced to industrial debris, and the community of Boca Chica transformed into a workers' colony for Musk's Starbase operation. The birds are dwindling in numbers. The fish are tiny. And the sky, once a canvas for stars, is now obscured by satellites and space junk. SpaceX's satellite constellation, Starlink, makes up more than 60% of all satellites orbiting Earth. According to the UK-based space firm Space Forge, about 40% of the material now burning up in Earth's atmosphere comes from Starlink satellites, which are designed to last only five years and disintegrate on entry. That translates to at least 500kg of incinerated hardware every day. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told in October 2024 that there is now a Starlink satellite re-entry almost every day. Some days see multiple burn-ups. These are not elegant, imperceptible disappearances. They contribute to atmospheric pollution in ways that are only just beginning to be studied. An October 2024 letter to the US Federal Communications Commission, signed by more than 100 top space scientists, warned urgently that the effects of these satellites have yet to be adequately researched. Their concerns were unequivocal: the pace of satellite deployment has vastly outstripped the regulatory frameworks meant to assess their environmental impact. 'Over just five years, Starlink has launched more than 6,000 units and now make up more than 60% of all satellites. The new space race took off faster than governments were able to act. Regulatory agencies review individual licences and lack the policies in place to assess the total effects of all proposed mega-constellations,' they wrote. 'Until national and international environmental reviews can be completed, we should stop launching further low Earth orbit satellites as part of constellations that provide consumer internet connectivity.' Meanwhile, light pollution from the Starlink array is already interfering with astronomers' work. It affects projects like South Africa's own Salt telescope, a major scientific facility — and genuine national treasure — whose vision of the stars is now often smeared by the unintended signatures of broadband ambition. If Starlink comes to South Africa, the astronomer Federico di Vruno told Reuters this week, 'it will be like shining a spotlight into someone's eyes, blinding us to the faint radio signals from celestial bodies'. Tech-optimism is eclipsing climate change realities Elie's film returns often to scenes of spectators in lawn chairs, watching Musk's rocket launches with misty eyes. Most are Boomers clearly nostalgic about the Space Race of their youth. Some describe the spectacle of a SpaceX launch as their 'Apollo moment'. SpaceX employees scrawl 'We are explorers' on bollards. But the documentary carefully strips away the romance to reveal a more uncomfortable truth. The rockets and satellites rise and return from land and skies now scarred by the vehicles of Musk's monomaniacal, megalomaniacal ambition. This is the paradox at the heart of the Musk myth. His obsession with space colonisation is sold as a response to climate collapse on Earth. Yet in pursuing that dream, he accelerates the very forces he claims to resist. The rockets that might someday touch down on Mars are poisoning the skies of Earth today. Each new satellite that promises to bridge digital divides also quietly widens the environmental ones. All the while, climate change — once seemingly the moral rallying cry of a generation — appears to be quietly slipping off the agenda. The inevitable reports are now emerging, a veritable flurry this past weekend alone, about the jobs that are already being lost to AI. What is virtually absent from the discourse is the ruinous environmental impact of the Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT: a November 2024 study found that just 16% of respondents were aware of the huge amount of water required to cool AI servers. Shifting Baselines invites us to look beyond the dazzle of innovation from the tech industry with which we are all bombarded daily to the dull, persistent erosion of the real world. It asks us to consider what we are losing in our quest to win the future — as the sky fills up with ghosts. DM here.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Shifting Baselines,' Examining SpaceX's Impact on Boca Chica, Home to Elon Musk's Starbase, Picked Up by Filmotor (EXCLUSIVE)
Prague-based doc specialist Filmotor has picked up the rights for Julien Elie's 'Shifting Baselines,' set to have its world premiere in the international feature competition at leading doc festival Visions du Réel. 'I first encountered the project at VdR-Work in Progress last year and immediately felt the strong urgency to distribute this poetic and creative documentary about the space race and Space X. After the American elections, we felt it even more… It's crucial that we pay attention not only to the events on our planet but also to what's happening in space and our orbit,' Filmotor CEO, Michaela Čajková, tells Variety. More from Variety 'The Eukrainian' Director on Documenting Ukraine's Fight for a European Future Ahead of CPH:DOX Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) 'Ai Weiwei's Turandot,' Behind-the-Scenes Look at His Radical Opera Production, Lands Sales Deal With Rise and Shine (EXCLUSIVE) Documentary Filmmakers Blast Proposal to Shut Down Miami Beach's O Cinema: 'An Attack on Freedom of Expression' Set in the Texan border town of Boca Chica, 'Shifting Baselines' examines the transformation of the area due to SpaceX's Starbase, the rocket launch facility that serves as a primary testing and production ground for Elon Musk's Starship launch vehicles, which he hopes will take Man to Mars. Located on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, it is surrounded by protected lands, part of a national wildlife refuge home to hundreds of species, including sea turtles and rare birds. Some of this land is now littered with rocket debris from failed launches. When Elie first arrived in Boca Chica with his camera in 2022, he had little idea of what he would find. What he discovered, he tells Variety, was a striking setting for a film. 'For a filmmaker, it's a dream: it's like a cinema set! You even have the characters because there are people from all over the world – Japan, China, Canada, America. They talk to you about their fears, about how bad the world is doing, about the pandemic. People just like the idea of escaping this world.' Elie draws a parallel between the space enthusiasts – who proudly wear 'Occupy Mars' T-shirts – and their ancestors, who took over indigenous lands in America. Just as earlier colonization led to the displacement and massacre of native peoples, these space pioneers now view Mars as the next frontier. 'I mean, we probably will go to Mars, maybe 25 or 30 years from now, not in two or three years. But people are really convinced. [They think] everything is destroyed here, so we have to escape, we need to have a plan B planet, rather than try to make things better here on Earth,' says Elie. 'That's what the film talks about: the nonsense of humanity's endless drive to conquer every available territory. Now, the sky is the ultimate limit.' With most of Boca Chica's homes bought up by SpaceX, the village has been turned into a sprawling compound for hundreds of workers, an entire ecosystem built around the Starbase. The film takes viewers on a cinematic black-and-white journey through the village and its surroundings, to meet the few remaining residents, the space enthusiasts drawn to the site, and the activists raising alarms about its environmental impact. Elie also interviews astrophysicists, who are part of a growing number of scientists warning of the growing risks posed by the unchecked expansion of satellite networks and space debris. 'They help us understand the danger posed by the space race, the contamination caused by satellites and space debris. The small village of Boca Chica is like the meeting point of that contamination, between the sky and the Earth, where biologists are trying to preserve birds' nests in a place that's being destroyed by human activity,' he says. The film's title was inspired by a concept coined by marine biologist Daniel Pauly, who also appears in the doc: 'Shifting Baselines explains our habituation to environmental changes,' Elie explains. 'Watching the sky transform with the proliferation of satellites, I thought of applying this concept, which was first invented to explain the disappearance of fish, to the new space conquest that will transform the sky forever.' The monochromatic aesthetic lends the film a poetic, dramatic quality which seemed fitting. 'When I first saw those rockets, I thought they looked like they were from another age, another civilization,' Elie says. 'This film is like a portrait of humanity today, as if captured by others. Black and white creates a kind of distance… Are they fake? Are they toys? When you look at the SpaceX installation and those rockets, it feels like you're in a 1960s science fiction movie from Russia or Eastern Europe,' he smiles. Elie's previous credits include 2018 multi-award winner 'Dark Suns,' about the epidemic of femicides in Mexico, and 'La Garde Blanche' (2023), also set in Mexico, which explores the terror and violence forged by the collusion between big corporations, drug cartels and the government. 'Shifting Baselines' is produced by Elie, Andreas Mendritzki and Aonan Yang at Montreal-based GreenGround Productions. It will have its world premiere at Visions du Réel on April 5. Visions du Réel runs from April 4 to 13 in Nyon, Switzerland. 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Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Visions Du Réel: Eliza Hittman, Athiná-Rachél Tsangári & Asif Kapadia Set For Fest — Full Lineup
Switzerland's Visions du Réel documentary festival will screen 14 films, 13 of which will be world premieres, as part of its official competition strand at this year's festival, which runs from April 4-13. The festival launched its full lineup this morning. The official competition jury will feature Hama Haruka, director of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, American filmmaker Eliza Hittman (Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always), and Greek filmmaker Athiná-Rachél Tsangári (Harvest). More from Deadline 'Free Leonard Peltier' Follows A 50-Year Trail To Justice For Native American Icon - Thessaloniki Int'l Documentary Festival 'Broadchurch' Creator Chris Chibnall's Debut Novel Being Made Into ITV Drama Series In New Film, Ukrainian Drag Queens "Combat War And Murder With Joy" - Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival Competition titles include Anamocot by French artist Marie Voignier (NA China), Julien Elie (Shifting Baselines), and Little, Big and Far by Jem Cohen (Museum Hours). Scroll down for the full lineup. As previously announced, Raoul Peck will be the festival's guest of honor and will receive the Prix d'Honneur on Monday 7 April, with a tribute by IDFA festival director and producer Orwa Nyrabia, before a screening of his latest film Ernest Cole: Lost and Found. He will also give a masterclass alongside French journalist Elisabeth Lequeret. A retrospective of his documentary and hybrid work will also be screened at the festival. Elsewhere, British filmmaker and producer Asif Kapadia will feature as part of the VdR-Industry days with a masterclass. He will also screen his film Amy (2015). Hittman, Tsangári, Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani, and Berlinale programmer Michael Stütz will also give industry masterclasses. International Feature Film Competition: ● Anamocot by Marie Voignier, Cameroon/France, 2025, 91', World premiere ● Aurora by João Vieira Torres, Brazil/Portugal/France, 2025, 129', World premiere ● Iron Winter by Kasimir Burgess, Australia/Mongolia, 2025, 90', World premiere ● Little, Big, and Far by Jem Cohen, Austria/USA, 2025, 122', International premiere ● La Montagne d'or by Roland Edzard, Belgium/France, 2025, 85', World premiere ● Niñxs by Kani Lapuerta, Mexico/Germany, 2025, 86', World premiere ● Obscure Night – 'Ain't I a Child' by Sylvain George, Switzerland/France, 2025, 164', World premiere ● Shifting Baselines by Julien Elie, Canada, 2025, 101', World premiere ● Soldiers of Light by Julian Vogel and Johannes Büttner, Germany, 2025, 108', World premiere ● The Attachment by Mamadou Khouma Gueye, Senegal/Belgium/France, 2025, 76', World premiere ● The Mountain Won't Move by Petra Seliškar, Slovenia/North Macedonia/France, 2025, 94', World premiere ● The Prince Of Nanawa by Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Paraguay/Colombia/Germany, 2025, 212', World premiere ● To Use a Mountain by Casey Carter, USA, 2025, 99', World premiere ● Where Two Oceans Meet by Lulu Scott, France/Belgium/South Africa, 2025, 75', World premiere Best of Deadline All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald 10 Brand New Emmy-Eligible Shows Coming This Spring 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
