This special selection of shorts is curated from a competition put on by NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society. These films all incorporate real NASA footage collected over 50 years of spaceflight and exploration.

As We Set Sail | Director: Lee Arter | USA | 3 min
A compilation of the most epic and dramatic footage that shows humanity’s accomplishments in space flight, aided by footage of President Kennedy’s speech at Rice University when he challenged America to go to the moon in 1962. View rocket launches from Apollo to Endeavor, Spacewalks, shots of the International Space Station, and re-entry footage from various sources.

End of the Sky | Director: Elijah Alvarado | USA |7 min
In the midst of a terrible drought, a brilliant young girl journeys aboard her homemade spaceship in hopes of watering her Grandma’s plants in the geysers of Enceladus, Saturn’s moon.

Outer Space | Director: Sander van den Berg | Holland | 2 min
Image sequences from NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions; no storyline, just beauty.

Guiding Light | Director: Guy Shahaf | Israel | 1 min
When in space, grasp anything you can.

Red Pearl | Director: Wayne Slaten | USA | 13 min
A Nigerian girl embarks on an extraordinary life journey to keep her mother's spirit alive.

Mission Avante | Director: Fernando Dueñas Peña | Colombia | 7 min
In the year 2175, a robot aboard a spaceship must send a very important message to earth before IT is too late.

Le Voyage | Director: Alexandre B. Lampron | Canada | 6 min
Fascinated by the cosmos and its marvels, two children attempt the ultimate trip.

Supersymmetry | Director: Trent Jaklitsch | USA | 6 min
An ode to the filmmaker’s father, but really an inspirational tale for all of us that interweaves personal childhood footage with clips from NASA, to tell the story of how the universe created us and how we create the universe.

Come Closer | Director: Amia Yokoyama | USA | 4 min
After a seven year journey, the ion propulsion spacecraft Dawn arrives at Ceres, the largest celestial body in an asteroid belt and the lone dwarf planet in the inner solar system. Ceres is the mysterious seductress, tempting humans as they search to find themselves in the unknown.

Higher Ground | Director: Mary Magsamen & Stephen Hillerbrand | USA | 12 min In the spirit of George Méliès' landmark illusionistic film, A Trip to the Moon, the artists Hillerband+Magsamen embark on an adventure with their children to construct and fly a rocket ship to the moon by taking apart their Houston suburban home. This quirky and seemingly impossible task created out of cut up couches, duct-tape, Amazon.com boxes, and pots and pans turns out to be not only achievable, but believable.