The Case Against Space (United Kingdom, France, 2026, 72′)

Italian premiere

International title: The Case Against Space
Original title: The Case Against Space
Director Screenplay, Editing, Music : Graeme Arnfield
Photography : Graeme Arnfield, Chiemi Shimada
Sound : Kelsey Rushworth, Atom Morton
Cast : Nezar Alderazi, Yana Penrose, Katie Smale 
Production : Local Vertical, Les Films Invisibles

In 1973, NASA launched Skylab, its first spaceship. The three astronauts on board, discovering the secret program behind the mission that consists of testing human productivity in space, rebel against it, blocking every means of communication for ninety minutes, launching an unprecedented strike. Shot in 16mm, Super8 and surveillance cameras,both in  black-and-white and color, the movie – honorable mention at Visions du reel Festival 2026 in Nyon and Italian premiere – is a fascinating and theoretical studio reconstruction of the day before the mutiny. On scene, two actresses and one actor playing the astronauts, while all the dialogues are formed by the real conversations really that happened, with the director having accessed NASA’s archives (a claim the agency has consistently denied). 

Graeme Arnfield. Born in the United Kingdom in 1991, he holds a master’s degree in experimental cinema from Kingston University and he’s a London-based filmmaker, artist, and composer. His movie stands out for its original approach to cinema. Armfield produced essay films using narrative methods to explore technological, ecological and historical matters in an intimate manner. His work has been presented at film festivals (among others, Berlin and Rotterdam) and in art galleries. 

Filmography: Mansion (sf, 2013), Sitting in Darkness (sf, 2015), Colossal Cave (sf, 2016), Asbestos (sf, 2016), Shouting at the Ground (sf, 2017), Pedigree (sf, 2018), The Phantom Menace (sf, 2019), Pervading Animal (sf, 2021), Home Invasion (doc., 2023), The Case Against Space (doc., 2026).