While the countless Hollywood blockbusters entirely centered around the perils of space might have you thinking of it as some cold, dark place with no return, an upcoming documentary from Universal Pictures is hoping to shed a bit of light on how brilliant and beautiful the final frontier actually is. In the first trailer for The Wonderful: Tales from the Space Station, documentarian Clare Lewins (I Am Ali) showcases bits and pieces of stories from people who have lived on the International Space Station, with particular focus on what led them to the work and their hopes for the future. In the accompanying YouTube description, Universal further describes the film’s premise and importance, stating:
Over twenty years ago, rival nations put aside political and cultural differences and came together in a demonstration of international co-operation to create something unique — the International Space Station. For the first time in history, driven by his innate impulse to explore, man had a permanently inhabited foothold in the heavens.
The Wonderful draws together personal stories from men and women from around the world who have been a part of this extraordinary endeavor, providing a fascinating insight into human nature and our relationship with planet Earth. These testimonials bring an intimacy and uniqueness to the story — bringing life in space alive, yet showing the strong emotional ties that bind these astronauts to the earth — and we are left not only with a sense of the vast ‘velvet bottomless bucket’ of the universe, but also the remarkable resilience and potential of mankind.
Among those interviewed in The Wonderful: Tales from the Space Station are George Abbey, Oleg Artemyev, Ken Bowersox, Cady Coleman, Samantha Cristoforetti, Frank Culbertson, Mike Foale, Scott Kelly, Ginger Kerrick, Sergei Krikalev, Tim Peake, Holly Ridings, William Shepherd, Jamey Simpson, Josh Simpson, Sergey Volkov, Koichi Wakata, and Peggy Whitson. The film is scheduled to hit theaters and video-on-demand on September 17.