SUNRIDER explores the lives of a group of earth’s survivors, living regenerative lifeways on terraformed asteroid earthships. A refugee AI program forms the godlike embodied consciousness of each earthship.
On this particular earthship, their name is AURORA. A group of humans, called Sunriders, pilot the earthships by connecting with the AI, while others tend to the complex, interlocking, closed loop ecosystems patchworked arklike over the terrain.
Shot on 35mm on the ARRIFLEX BL4 2Perf camera.
Part of the Planet Femme World.
Shot on 35mm on the ARRIFLEX BL4 2Perf camera.
Part of the Planet Femme World.
"...and so the pilots, called Sunriders, became a conduit between Aurora’s artificial intelligence and their people; those who lived on and tended to the terraformed asteroid earthship, one of six, then five, of their kind. Though in truth the Sunriders were more than mere pilots or messengers in Aurora’s eyes: they were at once their children, parents, doulas, siblings, and lovers..."
—Allen Sagewell, An Account of Aurora and Their People, 2369
SUNRIDER, premiered at Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival in Phoenix, AZ in September 2018, and was featured at a MONO NO AWARE screening at Anthology Film Archives in New York in April 2018. SUNRIDER was also officially selected for Lift'Off's First-Time Filmmaker Sessions, September 2019. SUNRIDER was also part of the screening program for "SUPERHOST" at Like a Little Disaster in Polignano a Mare, Italy, from August 4th - October 15th, 2019. SUNRIDER was also officially selected for The Bush Films' Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Films screening on August 25th, 2020.
SUNRIDER, premiered at Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival in Phoenix, AZ in September 2018, and was featured at a MONO NO AWARE screening at Anthology Film Archives in New York in April 2018. SUNRIDER was also officially selected for Lift'Off's First-Time Filmmaker Sessions, September 2019. SUNRIDER was also part of the screening program for "SUPERHOST" at Like a Little Disaster in Polignano a Mare, Italy, from August 4th - October 15th, 2019. SUNRIDER was also officially selected for The Bush Films' Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Films screening on August 25th, 2020.
Jax Jackson and Feathers Wise as AURORA. Constumes by Cilium (FKA TILLYandWILLIAM).