Join us for the last of our Daytime Documentary screenings with award-winning writer and academic Dr Damien Spiccia.

About Damien

Dr Damien Spiccia is an award-winning writer and academic with a passion for sharing the world of film with audiences. He teaches film, hosts public discussions, and contributes to publications such as FilmInk and Senses of Cinema.

Celebrating Tree Month

Film: 1 hour, 30 minutes

A Life’s Work (2019) director David Licata

What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them to answer this question.

The subjects are Jill Tarter, involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1970s; David and Jared Milarch, tree farmers, who clone old-growth trees to combat climate change; Robert Darden, a gospel music archivist and founder of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project; Paolo Soleri, a controversial architect behind Arcosanti, a town designed to test theories about housing an overpopulated planet while also preserving and nurturing the natural environment; and Jeff Stein, Soleri’s mentee at Arcosanti in the 1970s and successor after his death in 2013.

We discover what inspired them to begin, what obstacles they face, what drives and sustains them, and how they measure the success of an endeavour they will not live to see completed. Most of all, we discover that their lives really aren’t that different from everyone else’s: who hasn’t gazed at the stars and wondered if we are unique, nurtured a plant, sought ideal shelter, fallen in love with a song and couldn’t wait to share it with someone? And who among us will truly see our work finished before we leave this earthly plain?