Eliza McNitt’s Tale of Three Female Astronauts, “Dot of Light”
A short, powerful documentary made in collaboration with Google for National Space Day
It seems that just about every day we receive some sort of space-related inspiration—most of it pertaining to wild discoveries or groundbreaking scientific assessments. For National Space Day, filmmaker Eliza McNitt looked at subject matter a little closer to home. Through a partnership with Google, she profiled three female astronauts—Dr Kathryn D. Sullivan, Nicole Stott, and Anousheh Ansari—and assembled a short, powerful documentary film. The intimate portraits within “Dot of Light” offer access to women who achieved their dreams against great odds. And in one of the film’s most captivating moments, Ansari describes with such depth the way it feels to view Earth from afar. All of this has been intercut with archival footage and immersive imagery of space exploration.
McNitt’s film is an extension of another space-related collaboration with Google. The NY-based artist designed limited edition Live Cases for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL (as well as the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P). With those, she depicts many important moments of women in space, featuring Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, Kathy Sullivan and more. Of course, she also developed breathtaking scenes including Saturn’s rings and the Orion Nebula. As with all Live Cases, these are customizable and impact what shows on the phone’s screen, as well, by way of Live Wallpaper. In fact, portions of the documentary were filmed on the Pixel.
McNitt was the second artist collaborator to touch upon outer space, following up the stellar cases from astronaut Chris Hadfield—who used images he himself took of space. The nine Dot of Light Live Case Artworks by Eliza McNitt are available now for $40 each.
Images courtesy of Google, behind-the-scenes photos were captured with a Pixel
