Emer Reynolds’s enthralling documentary details NASA’s ambitious Voyager program which, in 1977, launched two probes whose original mission was to study the outermost planets of the Solar System, but went on to become the first human-created object to enter interstellar space.

Members of the program’s scientific team recount anecdotes of the ‘golden record’ affixed to each craft containing information about our planet for the benefit of any civilisation that might encounter the probe, and the taking of the famous photograph that presents the Earth as a ‘pale blue dot’.

This is a genuinely inspiring and uplifting feature-length documentary, and a tribute to the ingenuity and curiosity which created a craft with less computing power than a modern smartphone which is now 21 billion kilometres from the Earth, and may outlast the planet itself as it continues to explore the universe.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Awards:

Gold Lion Award, Barcelona International Film Festival 2017
Global Vision Documentary, Boston Irish Film Festival 2018
Dublin Film Critics Award for Best Irish Documentary; George Byrne Maverick Award for Best Film, Dublin International Film Festival, 2017
George Morrison Feature Documentary Award for Best Feature Documentary; Best Sound, Irish Film and Television Awards, 2018
Súil Eile Award, Irish Film Festival London, 2017
Best Film: Storyline and Production, Waimea Ocean Film Festival, 2018