Documentary Film
THE ART SIDE OF THE MOON
In March 2024, six teams of Australian filmmakers won the Sunny Coast Showdown competition, presented by the Bendigo Community Bank of Marcoola, Cooroy, and Tewantin-Noosa.
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Independent producers Kim Ingles and Julia Lörsch won one of two unscripted categories with a unique documentary project.
Their vision would follow the story of the Lunar Codex cultural time capsule project in its third launch from Earth - ultimately its first to successfully land on the Moon.
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Ingles and Lörsch had previously worked as a team on the impact documentary The Oyster Gardener, and the Showdown win allowed them the financial freedom to move forward on The Art Side of the Moon.
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The Sunny Coast Showdown
Then in its third year, the Sunny Coast Showdown talent incubator affords local writers, producers and filmmakers the chance for funding and support of their own film and TV projects.
Founded by Jon Coghill and Dan Munday - the latter having delivered reality productions including the global Survivor series - Sunny Coast Showdown is run by volunteers and screen professionals with a vision to establish a viable film and TV industry on Australia's Sunshine Coast.
Out of 90 submissions six projects were selected to go forward to complete productions and to present their finished films at the Sunny Coast Showdown SHOWFEST Film and TV festival in Queensland in June 2024.
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Behind the Scenes
Concept filming for The Art Side of the Moon had begun in the run-up to the launch of Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander in early 2024 - what would become the first commercial landing on the Moon, and the first US spacecraft landing in over fifty years since the Apollo program.
Filming continued through March in several countries around the globe.
In Australia, Margaret Ingles, a Queensland artist whose work had been selected more than two years previously for the Lunar Codex's Nova and Polaris time capsules, would embody the perspective of artists whose works were onboard the Codex.
In Canada, a local camera crew worked with Samuel Peralta, founder of the Lunar Codex, directed remotely from Australia by Ingles and Lörsch, as he curated work for future launches.
Footage and photographs from the February launch and landing were generously provided by SpaceX, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA). The ILOA wide-field-of-view camera onboard the Odysseus - which took the photos of the historic landing - was named the "Lunar Codex" in honor of the cultural archive project.
In the US, Europe, and in several countries around the world, dozens of artists, curators, collectors, and editors provided video clips of themselves and the works in the Lunar Codex, talking about what the project meant to them.
Principal photography for the documentary ended in April, followed by post-production in May. The film was completed in June 2024.
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Images on this page courtesy Sunny Coast Showdown, unless otherwise indicated.
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MANIFEST
The Art Side of the Moon:
The Lunar Codex Story
The Art Side of the Moon is an independent documentary film written, produced, and directed by Kim Ingles and Julia Lörsch under the auspices of the Australian film incubator institute, Sunny Coast Showdown.
The film premiered at The Station, Birtinya, in Queensland, Australia on June 22, 2024, as part of the 2024 SHOWFEST Film and TV Festival.
The Art Side of the Moon has been slated for showing in a number of venues on the film festival circuit.
The Sunny Coast Showdown preview article writes:
"Get a glimpse of the groundbreaking Art Side of the Moon documentary - the ambitious quest to preserve humanity’s creative achievements on the lunar surface.
"Meet Samuel, the visionary physicist behind the Lunar Codex - thousands of contemporary artworks by creators like Margaret encoded for an unprecedented moon archive.
"But will Margaret’s powerful piece - and this first-of-its-kind artistic cargo - make it aboard the commercial lander? The stakes are sky-high."
The Art Side of the Moon is included in the Polaris time capsule of the Lunar Codex.
The Art Side of the Moon:
Production
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Directed by Kim Ingles
Written by Kim Ingles & Julia Lörsch
Executive Producers Jon Coghill, Dan Munday & David Edgar
Produced by Julia Lörsch
Mentor - Samantha Martin
Production Advisor - Lisa Fitzpatrick
Director of Photography - Wes Greene
Editor - Kim Ingles
Finish Editor - William Missett
Composer - Denis Feletto
Co-producer - Louise Hayse
Production Manager - Liz Boyd
B-Camera Operator - Charis Gibson
Additional Camera - Julia Lörsch
Gaffer - Liam Bugden
Art Director - Janet Francis
Wardrobe - Janet Francis
Hair & Makeup - Melissa Christie & Hana Hartmann
Stills & BTS - Hing Ang
Assistant Stills & BTS - Esther De Schone
Safety Officer - Shaun Barry
Runner - Stephanie Linley
Catering - Noosa Personal Chef
Graphics - William Missett
Additional VFX - Zen Unlimited
Production Sound Services - DB Audible Difference
Sound Design / Editor / Mixer - Dan Brown
Colourist - Warren Eagles
Animation - Joel Sankey
Director of Photography (Toronto) - Brian Allan Stewart
B-Camera (Toronto) - Curt Galindo
Legal Services - Khal Tarabay
Sunshine Coast Shoot Location - Jacke & Rob Seljak
Additional footage courtesy of
Dale Smith â–ª Maor Attias â–ª John Mackintosh â–ª Francesco Ungarov â–ª Steve Durst â–ª Elisa Perednia â–ª The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawai'i) â–ª Intuitive Machines â–ª NASA
Featuring
Margaret Ingles â–ª Samuel Peralta
Tea Scene extras
Anya Toland â–ª Christine Radcliffe â–ª Margaret Ingles â–ª Kim Ingles â–ª Julia Lörsch
Family launch day
Philippe Alves â–ª Leonardo Pinheiro Tavares â–ª Richard Hall â–ª Andrew Ingles â–ª Kim Ingles â–ª Sarah Ingles
End scene
Lily Pinheiro-Ingles
Curators
Kara Ross, Art Renewal Center â–ª Steven Alan Bennett & Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, The Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Artists â–ª Didi Menendez, Poets Artists â–ª Danijela Krha Purssey, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
Art and poetry contributions from
Anna Rose Bain â–ª Aneka Ingold â–ª Jason John â–ª Audrey Kawasaki â–ª Margaret Ingles â–ª Rosario Bitanga-Peralta â–ª Viktoria Savenkova â–ª Mazzy Sleep â–ª Yvonne Melchers â–ª Maria Mitsumori â–ª Perla Kantarjian â–ª Hari Lualhati â–ª Lorena Kloosterboer â–ª Nicolette Wong â–ª Anne-Marie Zanetti â–ª Kathrin Longhurst â–ª Oceana Rain Stuart â–ª Heather Horton â–ª Daniel Maidman â–ª Hazel Bartram-Birchenough â–ª De Gillet Cox â–ª Rosa Fedele â–ª Amy Ordoveza â–ª Clayton Taha â–ª Martina Mcateer â–ª Paulina Aubey
Special thanks to
Samuel Peralta & the Peralta family â–ª Margaret Ingles & the Ingles family â–ª Jackie & Rob Seljak â–ª Bruce Ha â–ª Alex Purcell
Thanks to
Lily Pinheiro-Ingles â–ª Leonardo Tavares â–ª Richard Hall â–ª Andrew Ingles â–ª Sarah Ingles â–ª Phillipe Alves â–ª Sebastien Carew-Reid â–ª Anya Toland â–ª Tess Stomski â–ª John Toland â–ª Christine Radcliffe â–ª Jayde Harding
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Dedicated to the memory of
Rosario Bitanga-Peralta
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Sunny Coast Showdown
2024 SHOWFEST Film and TV Festival
is presented by Bendigo Bank
in association with
Screen Queensland â–ª The Queensland Government â–ª
Noosa Council â–ª Film Sunshine Coast â–ª Sunshine Coast Council â–ª Sunshine Coast Screen Collective â–ª
Paddy O'Shea's â–ª Noosa Personal Chef â–ª InNoosa / HelloSunshine â–ª 91.1HOT â–ª Bridgestone â–ª Noosa4Sale â–ª Silly Solly's â–ª Camera House â–ª Peregian Digital Hub â–ª The Big Pineapple
Sunny Coast Showdown thanks
The Station â–ª Noosa Waterfront â–ª Komotion Pictures â–ª SlaughterFX â–ª Bodhi Films â–ª Denis Feletto â–ª EventX â–ª Aesop Media â–ª Zen Unlimited â–ª Concrete Wednesday â–ª Warren Eagles â–ª Dan Brown â–ª Saturate â–ª Doyssey â–ª Lemac â–ª PlugGas â–ª Nalu Productions â–ª Bossy Boots Event Agency â–ª FxPhD