Our Future Ends
“Writer-director Clement Goldberg has created a 50-minute masterpiece of surrealist political satire…” LA Weekly
Our Future Ends is a multidisciplinary project about near-extinct lemurs and the long-lost continent of Lemuria. Parallel extinction narratives unfold across stop motion animation, video, and live theatrical performance set in a newly imagined Lemuria. The show premiered at CounterPulse in San Francisco in 2017, was the Outfest Platinum Centerpiece at REDCAT Theatre in Los Angeles in 2018, and was staged at OUTsider in Austin in 2019.
Lemurs (from the word lemure, or ghost) are the most endangered mammals on the planet. Even if their species is rehabilitated to adequate numbers in captivity they will not be able to return home.
Lemuria (a precursor to the occult city of Atlantis) was an imagined site of catastrophic loss. Its first incarnation was on a map created by zoologist Mr. P. L. Sclater in the late 1850’s that speculated a sunken land bridge to explain how lemurs got to Madagascar. Theosophist HP Blavatsky ran with the map to chart Lemurians as prehistoric entities, a failed race that went extinct along with the Atlanteans. Our Future Ends reimagines the occult account as a queer and trans origin story about the extinction of telepathic beings. It is a parable that connects threats of extinction to wildlife and marginalized cultures.
CREDITS
Written, Directed, Animated and Created by Clement Goldberg
Starring: Brontez Purnell, Heather María Ács, Maryam Farnaz Rostami, Xandra Ibarra, Zackary Drucker, Ben McCoy, Silas Howard and Siobhan Aluvalot. Choreography by Larry Arrington, Costume Design by Margaret Bolton Grace, Lighting Design by Jerry Lee, Original Music by Ted M. Superstar and Hale May, Original Animation Score by Ted M. Superstar, Sound Engineering by Sophia Poirier.
Visual Art Installation and Set Design Collaborators: Jerry Lee, Conrad Meyers, Maryam Farnaz Rostami with Clement Goldberg. Special thanks to CounterPulse, Duke Lemur Center, Sumathi Ramaswamy author of The Lost Land of Lemuria Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories, UC Berkeley Art Practice, BCNM, Tiffany Naiman, Natalie Coblentz and immense gratitude to Bett Williams and Beth Hill.
This work was made possible in part by awards from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that also is supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
PRESS and LINKS
“Writer-director Clement Goldberg has created a 50-minute masterpiece of surrealist political satire combining live action [performance] and stop-motion animation. A fantasy confection of glitter, style, kitsch and karma, Our Future Ends offers a neat, binary analogy between an anthropomorphized population of endangered lemurs and a postmodern cult of queer spirituality. The idea is that parallel stories of extinction face the animal population and authentically indie queer spaces, as each is threatened by forces of commerce, industrialism, opioids and cultural appropriation. There are songs and dances, DJs and video, all starring Brontez Purnell, Heather María Ács and Siobhan Aluvalot, with Zackary Drucker, Silas Howard, Xandra Ibarra, Ben McCoy and Maryam Farnaz Rostami as voices of the ancient, imperiled animated Malagasy.”
— LA WEEKLY, by Shana Nys Dambrot
https://counterpulse.org/wild-life-queer-identity-interview-clement-hil-goldberg
https://counterpulse.org/our-future-ends-_-in-residence/
FOR THE LEMURS
I was incredibly lucky to have a chance to film at the Duke Lemur Center. They take marvelous care of their lemurs and you can even “adopt” a lemur to help care for the endangered primates. Their goal is to return them to the wild someday. Or if you prefer like to donate directly to an organization caring for lemurs in Madagascar check out this network .
Epilogue For Our Future Ends at The STUD in San Francisco 2018
Epilogue for Our Future Ends at the STUD, San Francisco, 2018, Presented by Some Serious Business and the CounterPulse Festival, Photos by Alex Girard
ltr Siobhan Aluvalot, Heather Ács, Brontez Purnell, John Foster Cartwright 
Siobhan Aluvalot, Brontez Purnell, Heather María Ács, John Foster Cartwright 
Siobhan Aluvalot, Brontez Purnell, Heather María Ács, John Foster Cartwright 
Brontez Purnell and Heather María Ács as Lemurians 
Ltr Sioban Aluvalot, Heather María Ács, Brontez Purnell, John Foster Cartwright 
Heather María Ács as Lemurian and John Foster Cartwright as Madame HP Blavatsky 
John Foster Cartwright as Madame HP Blavatsky and Siobhan Aluvalot as The Cosmic DJ 
John Foster Cartwright as Madame HP Blavatsky 
ltr Siobhan Aluvalot, Brontez Purnell, John Foster Cartwright, Heather María Ács 
Siobhan Aluvalot as the Cosmic DJ
Our Future Ends, Premiere at CounterPulse in San Francisco 2017
Our Future Ends at CounterPulse, San Francisco, October 2017. Photos by Robbie Sweeny:
Brontez Purnell as a Lemurian 
Seymour 
CounterPulse, SF, Maryam Farnaz Rostami, Heather María Ács, Brontez Purnell as Lemurians 
Brontez Purnell 
Heather María Ács 
Brontez Purnell, Heather María Ács, Maryam Farnaz Rostami as Lemurians 
Brontez Purnell, Director Clement Hil Goldberg, Heather María Ács 
Maryam Farnaz Rostami as Lemurian 
Brontez Purnell, Maryam Rostami, Heather Ács 
Maryam Farnaz Rostami, writer/director Clement Goldberg, Brontez Purnell. Photo taken by Robbie Sweeny 
Outfest Platinum Centerpiece program page 
Brontez, Clement, Jerry Lee, Siobhan at the Outfest Opening Night
Behind The Scenes
Making puppets for Our Future Ends 
CounterPulse basement studio set up for Our Future Ends 2016 
My shotlist for the residency in the CounterPulse basement 
The Duke Lemur Center was so generous and allowed me to film! Lemur dreams come true! 
Animating in the basement at CounterPulse 2016 
Animating at CounterPulse 2016 
Animating at CounterPulse in the basement 2016 
Animating in the CounterPulse basement in 2016 
Tiny soap boxes from Scrap turned into Prime Mate treat boxes 
Animating at CounterPulse in SF 
Animating at CounterPulse 
Animating at CounterPulse basement residency 2016 
BTS at CounterPulse 2016 
Our Future Ends at BAMPFA 2016
Our Future Ends installation at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive 2016:
Viewing Crystal Collaborators:
Design by Maryam Rostami with Clement Fabrication by Conrad Meyers
clement goldberg 