Space Tourists
From Kazakhstan Encyclopedia
Template:About Template:Infobox film Space Tourists is a feature-length documentary of the Swiss director Christian Frei. The film had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival in 2009 and has won the "World Cinema Directing Award" at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.
Plot
The documentary juxtaposes the journeys of extremely rich tourists traveling with the astronauts into space with the poor Kazakh metal collectors risking their lives in search for rocket waste fallen down into the plains once the space shuttle has left. Critics acclaimed this film for its breathtaking imagery and richness of insights.[1]
The film accompanies the first female space traveler who was not a space agency employee, Anousheh Ansari, who paid US $20 million for her flight into space.
On the other side the film shows the poor Kazakh metal collectors risking their lives in search for rocket waste that fall literally from heaven. In the film we hear as well Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen who has followed these metal collectors long time ago. The film has its sad and funny sides. We observe for example Charles Simonyi, chief developer of Word and Excel at his space training and at his tasting of space food. Another protagonist of the film is Dumitru Popescu, an aerospace enthusiast who applied at the Google Lunar X-Prize of the X-Prize Foundation, founded by Anousheh Ansari.
Reception
Christopher Campbell wrote on the official bloc of DOC: The Documentary Channel:
Brad Balfour of the Huffington Post emphasizes that the film brings together the two sides of the medal of a medal:
Ryan L. Kobrick, author from the magazine The Space Review liked the authenticity of the film:
Awards and festivals
- DOC: The Documentary Channel 2012: Jury Prize «Best of Doc»
- Cervino Cine Mountain International Mountain Film Festival 2011: Miglior Grand Prix dei Festival 2011
- Beldocs Belgrad 2010: Best Photography Award
- Regio Fun Film Festival Katowice 2010: 2nd Award Documentary Film Competition
- European Documentary Film Festival Oslo 2010: Eurodok Award
- Sundance Film Festival Park City 2010: World Cinema Directing Award
- EBS International Documentary Film Festival Seoul 2010: Special Jury Prize
- Swiss Film Prize 2010: Nomination for the"Best documentary"
- International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA 2009: Official Selection.
References
External links
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