The Moon Goose Colony

Does the Moon-Goose exist? A special species of duck, the only one which has the ability to fly to the moon?

Agnes Meyer-Brandis records how a generation of moon-geese are raised, from when they hatch till they are fully fledged. In doing so, she takes quite literally a novel written by Francis Gordon in 1603 in which he writes about geese which can fly to the moon. The twenty eight chapters of the Moon Goose Colony are a methodical document of how the young geese progress. In the role of goose mother, the artist teaches the goslings not only the basics of life but also, dressed in a space suit, trains them as astronauts.

The film’s commentary, based on the modern text and in scientific jargon, is spoken by a male voice. The seriousness of the speaker, and of the young artist who rears her goslings lovingly, is contradicted by scurrility of the pictures which show the interaction of person and animal, quasi-academic recordings and the use of instruments from space flight. The images consistently undermine the attempt to set up a situation which would do justice to a scientific experiment. (Nahin Aydin)