The experimental short film A Planet Painted by Hand, directed by filmmaker Martí Madaula from Sabadell and inspired by the Hypatia I mission, premiered this April in the Official Selection of the international documentary film festival Visions du Réel, held in Nyon, Switzerland.
The 18-minute film is composed of mobile phone footage recorded by the mission members themselves during their stay at the Mars simulation station in the Utah desert, preserving the ambient sound of their everyday conversations throughout the mission.
The result is a film that juxtaposes a landscape evocative of Mars with the ordinariness of the voices that inhabit it. As the camera observes the arid, rocky surroundings through the station’s circular windows, conversations about coffee, oat milk, or missing familiar daily routines contrast with the epic narrative typically associated with space exploration, offering instead a more intimate perspective on the human experience of the mission.
Its selection for Visions du Réel marks an important international recognition for the film. One of Europe’s leading festivals dedicated to non-fiction cinema, this year’s edition selected 164 films from more than 3,700 submissions from around the world.
For Hypatia, the documentary represents a new way of sharing the mission’s experience with the public. Through an artistic and experimental approach, A Planet Painted by Hand shines a light on what is often left out of images of space exploration: everyday life, living together, and the small gestures that are just as much a part of any scientific adventure.