When renowned documentarian and filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite was initially approached about directing the sci-thriller I.S.S., she didn’t know anything about the International Space Station. But that’s exactly what attracted her to Nick Shamir’s script.
“I’m so curious about entering a new world, researching it and developing a story around it,” Cowperthwaite says. “That’s one of the most exciting things about being a filmmaker.”
Premiering at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, I.S.S. stars Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr. and more as American and Russian astronauts on the jointly operated spacecraft. When Russia bombs the U.S. with nuclear weapons, astronauts aboard the I.S.S. are told by their nations to take control by any means possible — leaving the characters unsure of who they can actually trust.
Cowperthwaite went into the project with certain philosophical and existential themes in mind, but world affairs would radically change the film’s context during the editing process when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“We had to have a very real conversation about whether we could release the movie as people are really being killed,” she says. “Ultimately, the film is about people being made to bear the brunt of big, horrible decisions from their nations, and that still holds true for me. But coming from the world of documentary, and telling real stories about real people, we had to talk about it.”
From the Front Range to the Final Frontier
Cowperthwaite first came to prominence after directing her 2013 documentary Blackfish, which told the story of a captive orca named Tilikum that killed three people at SeaWorld. The popular film drew the consequences of keeping such animals captive into stark relief.
“I was fascinated by orcas, thought that marine parks were insane, and couldn’t understand why people would want to swim with apex predators,” Cowperthwaite says.The film made such a huge impact that SeaWorld later announced an end to orca performances in the parks. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that Blackfish would strike a nerve.”
Cowperthwaite was raised in Denver, with family roots stretching back to the 19th century. Her mother is Brazilian, but her father’s side of the family were “original homesteaders’’ in Colorado from the 1860s.
“The bulk of my father’s side of the family stayed there,” says the filmmaker, who credits a keen sense of storytelling in part to her Centennial State upbringing. “I think there was a simplicity to how I grew up: being out in nature, gathered around the campfire and telling ghost stories, taking walks at night in the dark and imagining the worst. I got an excitement from all that.”
‘A human story’
After the success of Blackfish, Cowperthwaite decided to move into narrative films, starting with 2017’s Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara. She followed this two years later with Our Friend, which brought together Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck. With I.S.S., Cowperthwaite combines her character-driven approach from these biopic films with a dystopian sci-fi scenario, all unfolding in a claustrophobic yet pristine setting.
She knew this dive into the sci-fi genre would be intimidating, but that was a big part of the appeal for the Colorado-raised artist.
“The idea of making a film with 1000 VFX shots and the fear and adrenaline of imagining how you’re going to make people fly in zero gravity for 32 days [excited me],” she says. “A lot of times, for me, filmmaking is the excitement of being in a new territory and new world and wondering if I’m going to be able to make it work.”
Rather than drawing inspiration from classic space flicks like Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Gravity, Cowperthwaite says she was actually more influenced by the horror films The Thing and The Omen. She says she wanted to make I.S.S. feel as insidious as possible. But against a backdrop of real-life suffering and international conflict, the filmmaker hopes her latest work can help cut through divisions of geography and political boundaries to illustrate our shared connections.
“[It’s] a human story about the tension between what you’re required to do in life versus who you know yourself to be,” she says. “Because that’s what can get in the way of finding the humanity in one another.”
ON SCREEN: I.S.S. is streaming now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google Play.