Rabbit Island

Director: Ben Moon
Cinematography: Ben Moon, Page Stephenson
Editor: Dana Shaw
Illustrations: Lucy Engleman
Original music: Israel Nebeker
Field recordings: Jessica Kilroy
2015

In the middle of the vast watery stretch that is Lake Superior sits Rabbit Island, 91 acres of rocks, earth, trees and wild habitat. Rabbit Island has never been divided or developed, nor will it ever be. In collaboration with a land trust, a conservation easement has been placed on the island, ensuring that it will remain protected forever. This place offers a new kind of wild experience, where the point is to do nothing to an ecosystem and see what it teaches us.

One man's quest to protect an island he loves leads him to ponder great questions: Is there an opposite to development? An antonym to subdivision?

This film is a brief study of an island set on the majestic Lake Superior, and the artists who gather there for inspiration.

2015 Telluride Mountainfilm Festival + world tour
2015 Crested Butte Film Festival
2015 DC Adventure Film Festival
2015 Made In Michigan Film Festival
2016 Madeline Island Film Series
2016 Wild & Scenic Film Festival
2016 Fresh Coast Film Festival

Online feature and Q&A on the Nat Geo Adventure Blog:
www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/watch-rabbit-island-by-ben-moon

The Boardman Review & The Rabbit Island Foundation

Cinematography: Michael Kent
Editors: Courtney Kent, Michael Kent
Produced by: The Compass Points Here
2018

A short film offering a glimpse of the island life during August 2016 featuring several collaborators and the program’s founders. This film premiered in Traverse City, Michigan to coincide with the fourth issue launch of the Boardman Review, which had a main feature about Rabbit Island.

2018 Fresh Coast Film Festival

Printed publication feature:
https://indd.adobe.com/view/d091b67c-c8c9-4d8e-90bc-68dbb77f8367

Cabin-Time x Rabbit Island

Colin McCarthy
2012

Cabin-Time is a roaming creative residency to remote places.

Seven creatives traveled to Rabbit Island, a 91-acre island east of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. For five days (August 23-27, 2012) we explored ideas of weather with rocks, linocuts, flags, windsocks, and fireside stories.

Music by Evenings.

Additional photos and exhibition documentation:
www.cabin-time.org/residency-archive/rabbit-island-mi/

Sunrise from Art's Rock

Andrew Ranville
2012

Take 5 minutes for a realtime sunrise over the Lake Superior horizon from Art's Rock, Rabbit Island, Michigan. August 31, 2012.