User:Theadamsmith/sandbox

Space Queens is a 2019 American/British documentary film directed and co-produced by Adam Lewis Smith. The film was produced as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for Apollo 11 and takes a look at the unsung women who were involved in the moon landing. The film features both a mix of new and archive interviews with key women who were inspired by the events of Apollo 11 to taken on careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Education, Mathematics) - with a cast of civil engineers at NASA, former business manager to Buzz Aldrin - Christina Korp, MiMi Aung - who is leading the project of landing a helicopter on Mars in 2020 and Jim Bridenstine.

The film had a screening on July 15, 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, then was distributed globally via Amazon Prime Video in November 2019.

Production
Smith revealed in a radio interview with BBC Scotland that the film was a result of his final year university degree project at Edinburgh Napier University. It was funded in part via Indiegogo but the bulk load of funds came from Santander. The film was pitched to prospective producers including Kirsten Macleod and former Channel 4's James Blake in October 2018 and pre-production began in December that year.

Along with editor, Liucuja Selvestravucute - Smith partnered with two students from Full Sail University in Florida. Known for its award winning reputation and high budget film school, Smith worked closely with the film department to find a director of photographer and sound operator for shooting in the US.

Screenings
Following graduation, there was an all student screening at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh on May 16, in which a shorter version of the film was included, but did not feature the archive interviews with Aung, Freaman and Bridenstine. The film premiered 'as-live' on Facebook on July 15 to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing week. On October 5, 2019, in celebration of Space Day, the film was screened at The Hive library in Worcester, England.

The film will be shown as part of the 2020 Edinburgh Science Festival from April 4-17th as part of a special Mini Space Cinema