“Red Heaven” Kickstarter campaign runs through September 19

SFWG member Lauren DeFilippo’s documentary film will follow six earthbound adventurers living for an entire year on a simulated Mars.

“Red Heaven”

In a small dome on a remote volcano in Hawaii, six adventurers are simulating life in the first human habitat on Mars. The members of the HI-SEAS IV team entered the 1000 square foot Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation habitat on August 28, 2015. They will remain in and near the habitat for a full year, in complete physical isolation from other human beings, in order to simulate the social dynamics of astronaut crews on long-term space missions. During HI-SEAS IV filmmakers Lauren DeFilippo, of UF’s Department of English, and Katherine Gorringe, of Stanford University’s Department of Art & Art History, have had exclusive access to crew members’ video diaries and film of their group interactions. DeFilippo and Gorringe are editing these hundred of hours of footage from inside HI-SEAS, with popular culture representations of the red planet, and interviews with authors, scientists, and scholars, to create a feature-length documentary film that imagines what human life on Mars might actually be like.

DeFilippo and Gorringe have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the next phase of the project, to document the crews’ readjustments to life outside of HI-SEAS, and to staff the post-production team needed to complete the film. Backers of the project at all levels will receive a range of unique thank-you gifts.

Red Heaven is scheduled for release in September 2018. The Kickstarter campaign runs from August 19, 2016 through September 19, 2016. See this page for details of the campaign and the film’s new trailer: Red Heaven.