Norwegian filmmaker Elisabeth Rasmussen's second feature-length documentary, We Are Stardust [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], is set to world-premiere in Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival's Newcomers International Competition, before going on to the SCIENCE section at CPH:DOX. Cineuropa exclusively brings you the film's trailer.

For decades, scientists have spent billions searching outer space and the remotest places on Earth for stardust  -  tiny particles formed at the birth of our solar system. Norwegian jazz guitarist and amateur geologist Jon Larsen took a radically different approach: he searched for them in urban gutters.

After years of experimentation, Jon developed a method to identify genuine micrometeorites among terrestrial debris. His claims are initially met with scepticism and ridicule but his persistence leads to international recognition, global media coverage, and collaboration with leading cosmologists, including NASA scientists.

Rasmussen begins documenting Jon’s journey while exploring her own existential questions rooted in Sámi mythology and childhood memories of starry skies in the Arctic.

Interweaving a decade of observational footage, intimate conversations, interviews with leading scientists and breathtaking microscopic imagery, We Are Stardust moves from electron microscope laboratories to Nordic landscapes and into the vastness of the cosmos. Through innovative VFX and microscopic photography, the film reveals extraordinary beauty within particles invisible to the naked eye.

“I want to take our audience on a journey with a man who does not give up on his outside-the-box thinking, even when everything seems impossible,” says Rasmussen. “I want to share the excitement and zest for discovering stardust that Jon’s micrometeorites reawakened in me. The connection I felt to the stars as a little girl was perhaps more real than I understood at the time. We are all part of something bigger, we are all connected. And that is magical, if you ask me.”

Lensed by Jannicke Mikkelsen and Jason Leeds, edited by Ash Jenkins and with a score composed by Philip Owusu, We Are Stardust was produced by Rasmussen, Benedikte Bredesen and Jamie Hever for Norway’s Wonderline Productions, and co-produced by Ulrik Gutkin for Copenhagen Film Company Short & Doc.