Spa Sybarite is a fictional advertisement for a climate spa, set in a future where wellness replaces healthcare and climate stress and survival are sold as luxury experiences.
Runtime: 3 minutes
Spa Sybarite is a short film that examines the emerging idea of the climate spa, a wellness space designed to help people cope with the physical and emotional effects of climate change. The project reframes familiar wellness technologies such as bathing complexes, IV therapy, hydroponic nutrition systems, and immersive virtual reality as climate-specific treatments.
By focusing on the wellness industry rather than healthcare, the film highlights how adaptation to crisis can shift from public systems to private, market-driven solutions. Spa Sybarite explores how wellness culture, with fewer regulatory constraints, is able to respond quickly to fear, anxiety, and environmental stress, often turning vulnerability into opportunity.
Presented as a three minute advertisement, the film follows a protagonist moving through the spa’s treatments, emerging calm and restored. Beneath this polished surface, the project asks critical questions about access, equity, and power. When care, comfort, and adaptation are framed as luxury experiences, who is invited in, and who is excluded.
production stills
Befores and afters
crew
Director // Joshua A Dawson
Cast
Kyla Dyan (Spa Guest), Victoria Lynn (V.O)
Producer // Ian McClellan
Executive Producer // Sherry Chen
DP // Ashton Rae
Visual Effects Supervisor // Stephen Burchell
1st AC // Dylan Pfaffenberger
Key Grip // Becky Sapp
Gaffer // Will Prada
Costume Designer // Saori Mitome
Hair/MUA // Dre Lamparello
Compositor/3D Track // Ethan Montgomery
3D Modeling/lighting/rendering // Joshua Dawson
Interface // Mario Pegas
Color // Color Space Finishing
Sound // Ankur Agrawal
Original Score // Russell Henson
Key PA // Michael Solomon