EARTHS TO COME will be at the Venice Film Festival

July 18th, 2024

The World Premiere of EARTHS TO COME will be at the Venice Film Festival, starting August 28, 2024 in the Biennale College Cinema Immersive program Portland based Director, Rose Bond, and Producer, Melanie Coombs, announced today.

Earths to Come is an enveloping work that seeks to heal the last wounds on our post pandemic hearts by exploring the seductive, delicious and destructive nature of Desire. The piece is a collaboration between expanded cinema director, Rose Bond, Grammy® winning vocal band, Roomful of Teeth, lauded composer, inti figgis-vizueta, and Oscar® winning creative producer Melanie Coombs - each pushing at the edges of their prescribed mediums. We are variously women, queer, trans, indigenous, experimental animators, and musicians. We are established artists embracing a new arena of creative endeavor, and launching on the world stage.

On the Venice Immersive Island (Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio), Earths to Come will seat groups of 12 within a 6 meter dome, each wearing a synced headset and surrounded by 16 spatialized speakers. The work’s title is a line from an Emily Dickinson poem cataloged by its first line, “I have no life but this.” A small poem, it holds many dualities: vastness and insularity, public and private, doubt and assurance, longing and desire. In exploring this poem from queer icon Emily Dickinson, Rose, inti and Roomful of Teeth have created compelling and evocative images choreographed with simmering and soaring vocals that immerse the audience.

Earths to Come was developed by Rose, inti and Roomful of Teeth with the support of the Princess Grace Foundation and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2023, then Rose and Melanie were selected as a director/producer team for the Venice Biennale College Cinema Immersive workshops in January 2024. Now, just six months later the work has been selected as part of the official program for the 2024 Venice Film Festival, the most prestigious festival for Immersive, XR and VR works as well as Film.

What makes EARTHS TO COME groundbreaking? Immersive/VR works are usually experienced alone, but this will be a communal experience. Rather than being isolated and vulnerable the audience members will be enclosed in a dome, seated with others and surrounded by sound.

“Moving into the Immersive is the next logical step for me as an Artist”said Director Rose Bond, “and I’m grateful to the Biennale College Cinema Immersive program for this recognition and honor.”

“For Rose and all of our team, having our WORLD PREMIERE at Venice is a thrill” said Producer Melanie Coombs, “we are delighted to have found an eager audience for our cinematic approach to VR/immersive.”

Link to the VENICE announcement: https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/venice-immersive-lineup-and-competition-announced

For further information contact: Melanie Coombs, Producer - melanie@optimismfilm.com - 971 282 5477- Rose Bond Moving Pictures