A little film about family, Mars, and discovering our place in the universe.
Our story
My co-director Kandace Selnick and I originally created "Together" for NASA's 2016 Cinespace short film competition. With no prior filmmaking or screenwriting experience, we only knew that we wanted to tell a story that turned the focus onto Earth. From there it evolved into the journey of two astronauts struggling to connect with their young daughter.
Our tiny crew
There was only a month between the time we discovered the film competition to the deadline for submission. It was a huge time constraint and we knew we would need all the help we could get. This film would not be possible without the help of the friends and family that jumped into this project with us.
- Storyboard artist
- Kale Huang
- Illustrators
- Mariano Monardez
- Bernard Semerdjian
- Special Thanks
- Mauricio Abril
- Maureen Panos
- Chris Roumeliotis
- Xiangshun Shi Trofimov
- Mark Vidal
Inspired by real astronauts
Jes's father is based on Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commanded the International Space Station (ISS) as a part of Expedition 35. During his time aboard the ISS he tweeted pictures and videos of life aboard the ISS, some serious, some playful, some musical and built a poignant connection between himself and the people on Earth.
Jes's mother is a mixture of two NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barbara Morgan.
Our first fan art
Not long after showing the film to my family I went to visit my sister. When I was there my niece pulled me into her room to show me some drawings she had made. To my surprise she had drawn a series of planets that she'd imagined since watching our film. One was a water planet inspired by one of the scenes in "Together", but another was a planet where she said it snows year-round but the houses are protected by a layer of sunlight.
It's really humbling and surreal to know that we inspired a child's imagination. In the end, making "Together" was an experiment to see what would come out if we jumped in feet first and tried something we'd never done before. It was definitely trial by fire but I learned so much about myself, leading a team, and letting go of self-doubt.
