Hot Docs 2009: Ascension

Ascension (Pavel Medvedev)
BY MATHEW KUMAR

The idea of unseen footage from the Soviet-era space program sounds too good a prospect to ignore, but one of the most interesting things about Ascension is that it reminds us that quality is not just a matter of the content but how it's presented. While Ascension does have its fair share of mysterious looking rockets and odd human/animal testing—with the animal testing in particular veering between cute (happy dogs) to discomforting (sad monkeys; the growing realization of the most likely end for the animals)—the main problem is that it's all cut together in a forced "artistic" fashion with random footage and overlaid sound effects that makes it feel like an unsuccessful video collage that was supposed to be shown during a DJ set. But arguably the worst thing of all is the film's "punchline" which implies that it was making a point about the rise of China as an international power, cementing Ascension's place as complete drivel (whereas before we were quite willing to just consider it flawed and meaningless). If you're completely desperate to see the footage—which we admit, you'll probably never see otherwise—this isn't the worst way to spend forty-nine minutes but you'll leave frustrated for lack of context. 1.5/5