The Other Side of Mars

Vandi Verma has an exceptional understanding of the Martian landscape because of her work as a NASA Mars mission rover driver and roboticist. Her work of operating the rover in the Martian terrain relies to a large part on images and the technological use of them. Shot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and neighboring observatories, the film creates a philosophical journey into the peculiar world of Martian photography. Through the lenses of various scientists and engineers, we learn how NASAs’ images are made, used and manipulated for the sake of science, but also public information. Mars is the ideal place for an investigation into our paradoxical relationship to photography. Do images reflect reality or shape it?