With the plummeting temperatures and buffeting winds that Toronto has experienced over the last few weeks, it’s easy to fantasize about living anywhere but here. But would you ever consider living on the moon?
As far-fetched as it sounds, investigating this question is exactly what up and coming Canadian director Simon Ennis set out to do in his latest film Lunarcy!. A zany and light-hearted documentary, Lunarcy! follows several lunar enthusiasts, including Dennis Hope, the current “owner” of the moon, Alan Bean, an astronaut turned painter, and at the centre of it all, Christopher Carson, an eccentric young man who is determined to depart for the Moon and has no intention of returning.
With these quixotic dreams and lunar obsessions in mind, The Varsity sat down with Ennis in a quaint café on Dufferin to chat about the viability of owning celestial bodies, the moon’s potential to save Earth, and of course, Lunarcy!.
Simon Ennis, director of Lunarcy! MILO GOLUB/THE VARSITY
THE VARSITY
Where did the idea of investigating this lunar subculture come from?
SIMON ENNIS
I first got the idea because about three years ago… I just happened to read three totally different articles about the moon… The moon is such a — pardon the pun — such a universal thing, and it’s symbolized so many different things. I mean, everybody who’s ever been alive has some kind of relationship to [the moon] … but however you see the moon captures more about you than it does the moon. So I just thought it was an interesting symbol to use as a mirror to take a look at the effects of humanity and the human perception.
Originally, [Lunarcy!] was going to be more of a straightforward documentary, just moving through science, history, religion, culture etc. with a sense of humour… And then I started meeting these people who had, one way or another, devoted their lives to [the moon]! Chris Carson kinda became the star of the movie and it became less about the straightforward documentary, [and] more about these characters and their own passions, creativity, and individuality.
THE VARSITY
So it was by chance that the film ended up focusing on living on the moon?
SIMON ENNIS
Yeah, I went out collecting stories, and it just so happened that a lot of the more interesting ones were about people that wanted to live on the moon… [I]f you’re coming up with a program [as] to how you could live on the moon … it talks about what your own personal obsessions are… So it was great to get to know these different people, and it was less about the moon and more just a window into their own personalities.
THE VARSITY
The title of your documentary implies a level of lunacy in the people you looked into. Do you think their ideas are that far-fetched?
SIMON ENNIS
Well I think that there is a sliding scale of that. Probably the most far-fetched to most people would be Dennis Hope’s claim of owning the moon and being able to sell one-acre lots. I firmly believe he does own the moon, and I now am a property owner myself — I have an acre! Whereas you go to Alan Bean, who is the Apollo astronaut who walked on the moon and now paints it, and he’s talking about scientific facts … [and] the missions they’ve done. And then Chris and some of the other people, what they’re talking about is maybe a little bit more speculative, [but] I don’t think its necessarily far-fetched at all. It’s just a matter of [whether or not] there’s going to be enough will and money to get behind it.
THE VARSITY
Is there an actual legal basis for ownership of the moon?
SIMON ENNIS
Yeah, [Dennis Hope] explains it in the film! In 1967 the Treaty on Outer Space said that no nation could claim any extra-terrestrial planetary bodies, but [said] nothing about private individuals, so he filed a claim with the United Nations and said exactly what he was trying to do and if they had a legal problem with it, they should get back to him, and they never have. So that is his basis.
THE VARSITY
Some people would say that humans have already destroyed the Earth, and that it seems arrogant to lay claim to some other planet and destroy it as well. What would you say to that?
SIMON ENNIS
Well, I suppose that that is a possibility, but most of the people nowadays that are passionate about space advocacy and exploration are environmentalists… So I wouldn’t be too worried about that, at least at first. And second of all, the moon specifically [is] actually dead, there’s no life there, so what exactly could you ruin?
A lot of scientists believe that if they could figure out nuclear fusion of helium-3 [a property found in moon dust], they could go up there and mine and it would save the planet because it’s a completely green burning fuel. It could be as easy as going and picking up moon dust and bringing it back to Earth! Obviously humans have completely screwed up this planet, but hopefully [that] will be built into space exploration and colonization. In the future, [we] would be trying to find solutions to the problems we’ve created here, rather than just going out and creating more problems.
THE VARSITY
Can you actually imagine yourself living on the moon now?
SIMON ENNIS
Oh wow, yeah I can certainly imagine it. After working on a film like this for a couple years, I’ve read so many different accounts and talked to so many different people about what life might be like up there. So I can definitely imagine it… While I’m really excited about space exploration and going up to the moon, I don’t think it’s gotten so far as I’d want to live there. I’d want to go up and visit Chris once he gets up there… I’m sure I could crash on his couch if I hadn’t built a place on my half-acre yet.
THE VARSITY
Do you have any plans for this one-acre that you currently own on the moon?
SIMON ENNIS
Well, I know I live in a good neighbourhood, because my producer, executive producer and cinematographer all live right next to me. I’d have to make quite a few more films to save up enough money to actually go and visit it, but maybe my grandchildren will get to enjoy it. Unfortunately … in a very romantic notion, I put [the acre] in the name of me and my girlfriend at the time, and we’ve since broken up, so now I only have half an acre, but we’ll see. Maybe she’ll sell it to me!
Lunarcy! is opening at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on February 8, 2013
