What's Going On Up There?

2007 Indie Spec Special Recognition Award in Documentary - Boston International Film Festival

If you bring up space flight or exploration in any conversation everyone has something to say. People respond to space flight emotionally, intellectually, or both.

People have been talking about space since the first human lifted his or her eyes from the earth and saw the stars high above. Like many of the technologies we now take for granted, people have come to see space exploration as something that happens almost automatically.

What's Going On Up There? examines the sacrifices that must be made on the road to revitalizing the space industry.

Featuring interviews with scientists and scholars at MIT, Yale, Sydney University, and UC San Francisco, attorneys, authors, entrepreneurs, economist, environmentalists, filmmakers, youngsters and average citizens--even a college student in Kuwait who wants to be the first Muslim woman in space -- this in-your-face documentary offers conversations on all sides of the space debate.

  • Potential for commercial space travel
  • Past and future impact of space exploration on business and industry
  • Use of space technologies in environmental issues
  • Impact on art and culture of space technology and human imagination
  • Who regulates these space activities (e.g., use of spy satellites, space debris, implications for mining extraterrestrial resources, and the exploitation of human resources in global competition for such resources), and ultimately at what costs?
  • How will the legend and knowledge of the Apollo era be transferred to future generations?

Introduced by Leonard Nimoy, “Mr. Spock” of Star Trek fame, the 60 minute film is realized through lively debate, historical film clips, 1950’s and 1960’s movie trailers, animation and industrial promotional films as well as compelling visuals of the proposed Space Elevator, the XPrize competition and fashion/art created in microgravity. A filmmaker discusses his commitment to space exploration by his choice to make science fiction films reflecting human values