Shifting Baselines

The title of this highly thought-provoking film refers to how each generation perceives the natural environment of their own time as the ‘normal’ baseline, leading to a gradually increased tolerance for environmental degradation. The title might seem a little oblique at first, given that the film is ostensibly about Elon Musk’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, space exploration and rocket launches in general. But as Shifting Baselines begins to knit together its various strands—including the massive impact that the launches have on both the environment and the atmosphere, as well as on the feasibility of future launch missions—everything coheres into a multilayered meditation on the romance and dangers of space travel. Set on the perimeter of the Starbase facility, the filmmaker speaks to people who have come from around the United States to set up camp in the area and bear witness to what some of them view as our first tentative steps towards becoming an intergalactic species.