‘In the land of beauty’ visits France

by Francesca

The documentary screening in the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille was a success!

Even though I wasn’t part of the Uganda expedition, and only joined GalileoMobile a few months ago, I didn’t think that I would be nervous about whether people liked it or not – but actually I really was!  I was quite anxious about the reactions both the documentary and GalileoMobile would receive, but I needn’t have worried.

The feedback was extremely positive.

There were about 20 people and after the screening many later asked if the documentary is available online because they wanted to send it to other people! Even though many attendees didn’t know about GalileoMobile beforehand, they thought that the project is necessary and important!  Others asked if we would be showing it again, as they didn’t manage to go to the first screening in time, but would have really liked to watch it!

So, mission accomplished, and I’m glad to have been able to spread the message of “Under the same sky” to this corner of the Earth too!

In the land of beauty: First public screening!

By Fabio

GalileoMobile filmed a documentary and we are showing it on big screens in many cool locations. Nice, isn’t it? ‘In the Land of Beauty’ started its journey across the world as a big screen film in Yale on 4th February. A special date, since the 4th October marks the end of our Uganda expedition in 2013.

How did the screening go?
Well, I tell you the story, which, of course, is a story in the story, and many little stories within the bigger ones.

When I moved to Yale a few months ago, I saw this observatory, which sits on the highest point on Yale campus. There are two little domes hosting two telescopes, and a bigger one with a Planetarium, which hosts people who like to enjoy the wonders of the cosmos. So I thought: “Yes, this is a good starting point for the world to see our movie, a movie about a journey, the cosmos, about people, friendship, unity, and nature.”

So we organized this event for the 28 January, but here comes the story in the story. The biggest snowstorm in the history of U.S. Northeast hit many places, including New Haven, the day before the screening.

“Screw it, we’ll do it anyway”, I thought.

But what happened instead, was the closure of the whole University, a half deserted city, and everybody spending the day at home, possibly with a hot tea, coffee, or wine. “Drink whatever you want” – they seemed to say – “but don’t go to the premiere of ‘In the Land of Beauty’ “.
“Fair enough, the journey will start one week later, and I too will have a glass of wine at home”, I thought.

The terrible snowstorm, which should have brought about 1 meter of snow, delivered only 15cm. A week later, two days before the rescheduled premiere of the documentary, a less advertised snowstorm brought, instead, more than 50 cm of snow, which quietly fell covering all the city.

“Screw it, we’ll do it anyway”. And this time we did it!

I don’t know how many times I had already watched the documentary, but this time was totally different from before. About 15 people attended, and all of them enjoyed the movie and our work, our philosophy and ideas.For a bit more than one hour they have traveled with us to Uganda, Africa, around the planet and:

‘In the land of Beauty’.

Till next time!

Every Picture Tells a Story: The Egg

Coming back from the girl’s house. Credits: GalileoMobile / Philippe Kobel

By Patrícia Figueiró Spinelli

We had met this beautiful girl on Tuesday early morning, during our last week in Uganda. We were trying to find a spot to shoot some interviews for our documentary in Mbale.

The weather had been rainy all the time during the previous weeks in Uganda, in such a way that our documentary producers could not shoot our interviews to the documentary due to the lack of light.

Thus, in our last week, we had to rush and record everything. The best day time to make the video shootings were after the sunrise or before sunset. Since we also had to be at schools during those times, we have decided to leave the hotel very early in the morning and walk around to find “the spot”.

And there she was, sowing the lands with other three farmer colleagues. We talked to them for a few minutes. The beautiful girl told us she was in college, studying Communication, but in order to pay the college fees, she had to work as a farmer, from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Then, in the afternoons, she would attend school.

During the rest of the week, we kept our ritual: woke up early in our quest to find more interview spots and talked to her on the way.

On Friday, the day we were leaving Mbale, and thus Uganda, we decided to say goodbye to our girl friend. We gave her some postcards from space. That’s all we had. She then invited us to go to her place and so we went. We walked a bit in the farm fields until we reached her place. She introduced us to her mother while she went to the henhouse. We did not have much time. At the moment we were leaving, she came back from the henhouse holding some eggs. She distributed one egg each. It was her gift to us.

Eggs and space cards were exchanged.

It was the most beautiful gift someone has ever given to me.

I miss talking to you, darling. You deeply touched my heart.

I hope we keep in touch.