PLANET CITY — Film
As a consequence of hundreds of years of colonisation, globalisation and never-ending economic extraction we have remade the world from the scale of the cell to the tectonic plate. But what if we radically reversed this planetary sprawl? What if we reached a global consensus to retreat from our vast network of cities and entangled supply chains into one hyper-dense metropolis housing the entire population of the earth?
Planet City is a film set in an imaginary city for 10 billion people, the entire population of the earth, where we surrender the rest of the world to a global scaled wilderness and the return of stolen lands. The film follows a continuous festival procession dancing through the city on a 365 day loop. Each day it intersects with a different carnival, culture and celebration, changing the beat as it goes, endlessly cycling through new colors, costumes and cacophonies. Designed and directed by speculative architect Liam Young the film also features costumes developed in collaboration with Ane Crabtree, costume designer of Handmaid’s Tale, Westworld and Invasion and an original score by acclaimed electronic producer Forest Swords with vocals by Tunisian signer songwriter Emel, known for her protest song Kelmti Horra which became an anthem for the Arab spring.
It is a speculative fiction grounded in statistical analysis, research and traditional knowledge. It is a collaborative work of multiple voices and cultures supported by an international team of acclaimed environmental scientists, theorists and advisors. In Planet City we see that climate change is no longer a technological problem, but rather an ideological one, rooted in culture and politics.
This is a fiction shaped like a city. Planet City is simultaneously an extraordinary image of tomorrow and an urgent examination of the environmental questions facing us today.
Director Liam Young Production Design Liam Young Costume Director/Producer Ane Crabtree VFX Supervisor Alexey Marfin VFX Case Miller, Aman Sheth, Vivian Komati, Yucong Wang Original Score Forest Swords (Matthew Barnes) Vocals EMEL Lead Researcher Case Miller Researcher Pierce Myers Narrative Consultant Jennifer Chen West Coast Costume Assistant Courtney Mitchell East Coast Costume Assistant Ela Erdogan Costume Artists Holly McQuillian, Karin Peterson, Kathryn Walters (Zero Waste Weavers), Aneesa Shami (High Altitude Bot Herder), Yeohlee Teng (Code Talker), Courtney Mitchell (Beekeeper), Ane Crabtree (Nomadic Worker, Algae Diver, Drone Shepard) Fiber Artist Janice Arnold Mask Artists Liam Young (High Altitude Bot Herder, Code Talker, Algae Diver, Drone Shepard), Zac Monday (Zero Waste Weavers), Aneesa Shami (Zero Waste Weavers) Performers David Freeland Jr, AJ and Miguel Alejandro Lopez, Joy Brown Commissioned by NGV Melbourne & Ewan McEoin
