CineSpace

Well now, this is lovely: NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society teamed up to form the CineSpace competition. The idea was to take some real NASA imagery and create a short film that uses it in some way.

They just announced the winners, and I watched several of them. They’re all quite good, including the overall winner, “Higher Ground” (holy mackerel, the effort that went into that!). But I think my favorite is “Home,” which is very short:

I love how it uses the everyday things we experience and weaves them into the things NASA does every day … and then projects that into the future.

Also, I’m a sucker for a composite shot of someone standing in awe, looking up, gawking at some fantastic scene in the sky. It reminds me a little bit of “Wanderers”—which, in my opinion, is the best short paean to space travel ever made.

Still, I recommend bookmarking that NASA page and watching the videos when you get a chance. It’s always interesting to see how different people interpret very general instructions like this, and the results will show you just how inspiring NASA and space exploration can be.