In the quiet border village of Boca Chica, Texas — hemmed in by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande — life once moved to the rhythm of waves and wildlife. But the landscape is shifting. Beaches have closed, homes bought out, and wetlands drained to make way for SpaceX’s colossal 50-story rockets. Hovering above the village like steel deities, these rockets mark not just the privatization of space, but the violent remapping of Earth itself, fueled by the ambitions of a tech mogul with a messianic vision for humanity’s future.
Filmed in stark black and white and shaped by postwar sci-fi aesthetics, Shifting Baselines is a haunting observational essay about how speculative futures displace real communities, rewrite land, and recast technology as divine intervention. Following scientists, spectators, and residents on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, director Julien Elie captures a surreal moment in which space conquest is marketed as environmental salvation. Winner of the Green Dox Award at DokuFest 2025, this film reveals how cosmic ambition often begins with earthly erasure.
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2025
In English, French and Spanish with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Andreas Mendritzki, Aonan Yang, Julien Elie
Cinematography
Glauco Bermudez, François Messier-Rheault
Editor
Xi Feng
Original Music
Mimi Allard
Julien Elie
After directing a pair of documentaries in the early 2000s, Julien Elie took a 15-year hiatus from cinema, returning in 2018 with his epic film Soleils Noirs. Documenting a wave of violence that has affected Mexico for years, the film won multiple awards and distinctions (CPH DOX, FICUNAM, Hamburg Film Festival, among others) and was presented in nearly 60 festivals worldwide. In 2023, a second documentary filmed in Mexico, The White Guard, addressed the devastation of landscapes and territories by private companies. Elie’s latest film, Shifting Baselines (2025), premiered at Visions du réel (Nyon) and Hot Docs (Toronto).
Filmography: Le dernier repas (2003); Soleils Noirs (2018); The White Guard (2023)
Insights
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Image: © The New York Times
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