Shifting Baselines by Julien Elie is a visually stunning, dystopian-like documentary that examines the environmental and human consequences of industrial development in Boca Chica, Texas. The arrival of SpaceX’s Starbase facility has altered the landscape and reshaped the daily lives of the people living nearby. Elie constructs his film with an assured holistic vision, letting both architecture, people involved, and nature tell the story.
Directed by: Julien Elie
Year: 2025
Country: Canada
Length: 100 minutes
The black-and-white cinematography of the film gives the environment a retro dystopian science-fiction-like character. Interviews with local residents reveal the disorientation that comes with displacement. They describe the disappearance of their surroundings and the uncertainty that fills the space where familiar patterns once existed. These conversations offer scattered reflections and open-ended questions, voiced by people trying to make sense of a world that no longer fits their memories and/or visions of the future.
The film draws its title from the ecological idea of shifting baselines, a concept that describes how each generation gradually accepts environmental degradation as the new normal, forgetting what came before. With every shift, expectations reset. Over time, the losses pile up without fully registering in public consciousness. Elie explores this idea without turning it into a lesson or warning and encourages the viewer to consider how the story of progress covers over histories of erosion and damage.
The film is extremely contemporary, unfolding in an era where billionaire Elon Musk publicly celebrates his dream of taking man to Mars. Elie includes perspectives from visitors who have traveled from far to see the site, with some express admiration for the technology and its potential, others frame it as a fatalist acceptance of Earth’s decline. These voices, fascinated by space exploration, deeply contrast to those who speak of ecological grief and loss.
There is no voiceover guiding the viewer or offering a summary of events. The weight of the film comes from the atmosphere Elie creates. The sound of rocket engines, the empty stretches of coast, the towering machinery posed against the natural, and the fragments of local stories all contribute to a growing sense of unease and dread. Each image adds to the impression that something has been irreversibly altered, even if the full meaning of that change remains elusive.
Elie highlights both perspectives and aims to remain objective in his study of these opposing views. Even so, it becomes difficult to ignore the impact on nature, on people, and on the Earth itself, as expressed by those who challenge the current trajectory. Shifting Baselines does not supply clear conclusions or solutions. It avoids presenting its subjects as heroes or villains. Elie invites the viewer to sit with the discomfort of watching a place transform under immense and impersonal pressures. His film is a reflection on how the toll and perhaps the illusion of ‘progress’, how loss settles into the background, and how people adjust to realities they did not choose.
Shifting Baselines premiered at Visions du Réel 2025 as part of the festival’s International Feature Film Competition.
obviouslyreviews.com 