Tension in Space

Im Mittelpunkt des diesjährigen ICI Library Events steht der Film No Gravity von Silvia Casalino. Am Beispiel des langwierigen Bewerbungsverfahrens einer Astronautin fordert die feministische Docu-Fiction dazu auf, die gläsernen Decken der Diskriminierung zu überwinden, die Frauen daran hindern, ins Weltall zu fliegen. Der Film inspiriert mit seinem Naturwissenschaften und Technik bejahenden Feminismus und bietet intereressante Einblicke in Ost-West-Perspektiven aus der Zeit des Kalten Krieges.

Synopsis

Silvia Casalino always wanted to explore inaccessible and dangerous places. As a child, she dreamed about flying to space. She often heard that it was a man’s trade, that one shouldn’t daydream. She refused these rules. She wanted to become a space engineer, built rockets. She applied to be an astronaut, and was refused. After her anger had passed, she tried to understand why. Researching the place of women in the space race enabled deeper reflection into the limits of gender and its representations. This research led her to rocket launch pads in the jungle of French Guiana, flying frogs in space, tropical plants between techno mock-ups in Star City, Russia, an iguana playing the Donna Haraway cyborg, and incredible archive images from space agencies all around the world. No Gravity is a film between science and fiction, remixed by queer-feminist minds. Three generations of women lead the way through three different continents, following a single fascination: space science, and technology!
Teaser No Gravity

Silvia Casalino holds a master degree in Space Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan and l’École Nationale Supérieure de L’Aéronautique et de L’Espace in Toulouse (specializing in low orbit messaging satellite systems). Since 2001, she has worked for the CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in Paris, where she was initially in charge of the ‘zero gravity launcher control attitude’ on the ARIANE 5 program, and then on Vega mini-launcher development. In addition, she writes for journals such as Towanda!, Vacarme and GLU Magazine. She co-organized the exhibition ‘Dykestrippers’ at Colletivo Donne Milanesi and completed an extensive interview with the feminist filmmaker Carole Roussopoulos. She also collaborates with the label Kill the DJ in Paris. During her 2009 ICI Fellowship, she developed the idea for a documentary about women and space science. No Gravity, her first film, was completed in 2011.