The Orbit of Minor Satellites
Chris Sullivan | USA | Mixed Media | 2026
Rating: 13+
ByTowne Cinema
ByTowne Cinema
In Chris Sullivan’s The Orbit of Minor Satellites, psychiatrist Derwood Richards and his patient, Rosemary Hamm, are nearing the end of a long therapeutic relationship. Rosemary is mourning her sister’s passing, while Derwood remains marked by a catastrophe from his own childhood. Their stories unfold through a shifting constellation of memories, mysteries, Cold War anxieties, imagined planets, Nancy Drew-like adventures, and a Soviet-American space station drifting above a world still haunted by earlier forms of violence.
More than a decade after Consuming Spirits, Sullivan returns with another sprawling, handmade work of damaged lives and unstable realities. Combining hand-drawn animation, models, painted backgrounds, objects, digital compositing, live action, and fragments of old radio drama, The Orbit of Minor Satellites moves between psychiatric rooms, orbital stations, family trauma, and pulp fantasy. Its fractured structure resists easy explanation, allowing inner and outer worlds to collapse into one another until it is no longer clear who is imagining whom.
At once intimate and cosmic, the film is a meditation on grief, care, survival, and the strange pain of relationships designed to end. Sullivan asks what remains after treatment, childhood, disaster, and history have done their work. Strange, unruly, and deeply compassionate, The Orbit of Minor Satellites turns emotional residue into its own eccentric gravity. (Chris Robinson)
FR
Dans The Orbit of Minor Satellites de Chris Sullivan, le psychiatre Derwood Richards et sa patiente Rosemary Hamm approchent de la fin d’une longue relation thérapeutique. Rosemary pleure sa sœur morte; Derwood, lui-même survivant d’une catastrophe d’enfance, porte ses propres ruines intérieures. Autour d’eux gravite une constellation mouvante de souvenirs, de mystères, d’angoisses liées à la guerre froide, de planètes imaginaires, d’aventures à la Nancy Drew et d’une station spatiale soviéto-américaine flottant au-dessus d’un monde encore hanté par d’anciennes formes de violence.
Plus de dix ans après Consuming Spirits, Sullivan revient avec une autre œuvre ample et artisanale, peuplée d’existences abîmées et de réalités instables. Mêlant animation dessinée à la main, maquettes, décors peints, objets, composition numérique, prises de vues réelles et fragments de vieux dramatiques radiophoniques, The Orbit of Minor Satellites circule entre cabinets psychiatriques, stations orbitales, traumatismes familiaux et imaginaire pulp. Sa structure fragmentée résiste aux explications faciles, laissant les mondes intérieurs et extérieurs se confondre jusqu’à ce qu’il ne soit plus possible de savoir clairement qui imagine qui.
À la fois intime et cosmique, le film est une méditation sur le deuil, le soin, la survie et l’étrange douleur des relations conçues pour prendre fin. Sullivan interroge ce qui demeure après que le traitement, l’enfance, la catastrophe et l’histoire ont accompli leur œuvre. Étrange, indiscipliné et profondément compatissant, The Orbit of Minor Satellites transforme les résidus émotionnels en une gravité excentrique qui lui est propre. (Chris Robinson)
Chris Sullivan, was born and raised in the wooded hills of Pittsburgh PA. along with 10 siblings. A product of British mother Beryl, and Irish American father Lawrence. They met in England during WW2.
I now live in Chicago, and teach filmmaking and animation at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. I am called dad by my daughters, Carmen and Silvia Abelson.
I have shown my work in festivals, theaters and museums world wide, including Tribeca Film Festival , Osian’s Cinefest in India , in Haifa film festival, Chicago International, Milano, Vancouver International, Pacific Film Archives Denver Starz; Annecy, Zagreb, Animator, Fantoche, Zagreb World Festival of Animation; Humboldt Film Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Ottawa Animation Festival; Guggenheim Museum; Boston Museum, Walker Art Center, Wexner Center, Houston Museum, National Gallery D.C. . Cinefamily In LA, Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago, and many more.
Consuming Spirits had its theatrical debut at New York’s Film Forum for a two week run in December of 2012. My films have received funding from The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, from Artist The Rockefeller Foundation Film Fellowship, The Bush Foundation, and now The Creative Capital Grant for The Orbit of Minor Satellites.