Astronauts who have seen the Earth from space have often described the ‘overview effect’ as an experience that transformed their perspective on the planet, and mankind’s place upon it. Overview is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with astronauts who have been to space. Some riff on the experience like poets, describing the planet as sheathed in ‘dancing curtains of auroras.’ Others explain their heartache at seeing the globe’s beauty marred by clear-cut forests, erosion and other destructive effects of humanity.
How humanity’s first glimpse of the earth from space changed our species forever
Director: Guy Reid
Producer: Steve Kennedy
5 February 2014
videoAstronomy
The majestic Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts orbiting above
6 minutes
videoAstronomy
How an unplanned picture from Apollo 8 altered humanity’s perspective of Earth
30 minutes
videoSpace exploration
Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets
31 minutes
videoAstronomy
Close encounters of a different kind – what if Venus, Neptune or Saturn hovered close by?
2 minutes
videoHistory of science
Prelude to the space age – the 1960 film that inspired ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
28 minutes
videoThe environment
What we’ve done with our world, from ingenuity to devastation – in two kinetic minutes
2 minutes
videoSpace exploration
Fun in zero gravity: the real reason astronauts go to space
4 minutes
videoSpace exploration
The high life: take a majestic, guided tour of the International Space Station
18 minutes
videoAstronomy
In her dreams, the first Briton in space revisits staggering views of the Earth
3 minutes