Come to the Edge - Best Documentary Short: Fine Arts Film Film Festival, Venice, CA
Director/Cinematographer/Editor: Sophie Dia Pegrum
Moon Landing Footage: NASA Archives

“Come to the Edge” is an experimental fusion film project juxtaposing our human odysseys into space with an exceptional journey to Antarctica, one of earth’s most hostile environments, to accurately place a star map mirror onto the ice.  The film celebrates both the scientific quest and artistic vision and conflates two extraordinary time periods as a reflection on the singular human quest to not only find our place in the stars, but to understand our very relationship to them. 

In 1968 our technological achievements and first lunar expeditions led to an unprecedented new image of our Earth from space.  2016 marks the 10th anniversary of an ephemeral and unprecedented art science collaboration in Antarctica, the highest, driest, coldest and windiest place on the planet.   The short film "Come to the Edge" brings all this together in an experimental synthesis of music, audio and archival footage celebrating our unique human quest to find our place amongst the stars.  

Director's Statement:

Early expeditions to space were technological feats of engineering and bravery. Beside the science, the voyages brought back the first images of a fragile blue marble, our home, hanging in the vast blackness.  This new vision was one of the greatest prizes of early space travel.  In 2006, Artist Lita Albuquerque was invited by the National Science Foundation to lead a team including Astronomer Dr. Simon Balm to install an ephemeral earth art star map mirroring 99 of the brightest stars above, an earthly constellation on the Ross Ice Shelf.  This pioneering artwork, the first and largest ephemeral art work created on the continent, was photographed, recorded and then in accordance with strict environmental guidelines,  was completely removed.  The incredible visual experiences of space exploration, and the unequaled visceral experience of the art installation on the vastness void of the ice shelf welded naturally into a film unifying experience of body, Earth, space and stars.