While filming Cielo at Chile’s La Silla Observatory (which screened at Full Frame 2018), Alison McAlpine’s curiosity was sparked by an unexpected encounter: a family of donkeys grazing near the observatory’s dome. Although that moment didn’t make the film’s final cut, the image lingered, prompting McAlpine to wonder how these animals perceived the structure and the vast, starry night sky above. This seed of inquiry blossomed into a short film. McAlpine’s masterful use of texture, light, shadow, and rhythm results in a mesmerizing cinematic poem, a space where the strange and the beautiful coalesce. And a rich sonic tapestry—hurdy-gurdy, tuba, and percussion—accompanies the donkeys’ journey and animates the observatory’s silent presence.  PB