The Other Side of Mars

The Other Side of Mars is a documentary about how we come to know a world almost entirely through images. Filmed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and nearby observatories, it follows roboticist and Mars rover driver Vandi Verma as she plans and executes rover movements on terrain she cannot physically enter—relying on photographs, software, and careful visual interpretation.

Alongside Verma’s daily practice, the film opens conversations with scientists who work with planetary imaging and ask what “objectivity” can mean when every image is calibrated, processed, and read within a framework. Mars becomes both distant and strangely familiar: remote from everyday life, yet gradually knowable through sustained attention. The film traces the labour embedded in seeing—how images are not simply evidence, but tools that shape perception, understanding, and imagination. As sociologist of science Janet Vertesi puts it:

“Seeing takes work. Seeing requires context. And seeing requires interpretation. There’s no such thing as ”just seeing””.

Produced by Liisa Karpo of napafilms, The Other Side of Mars premiered at DocPoint International Documentary Film Festival and was the recipient of the Testimony on Knowledge Award at Jihlava IDFF. The film’s cinematographer Päivi Kettunen, F.S.C., was awarded the Special Achievement Award of  Cinematography at Red Rock Film Festival, Utah and awarded the Best Technology Film Genre Prize at Vienna Science Film Festival.

Jury statement (Jihlava IDFF): The film shows that even scientific photos of the planet Mars which we might perceive as a pure representation of reality are actually reshaping the reality into something we understand and expect. The extreme example of scientific picturing of an object which we have no direct experience with makes the audience ask: How are the pictures from all the current problems on the Earth reshaped by our expectations and ability to understand.

Country: Finland
Shot in: Pasadena, USA
Year of completion: 2019
Length: 56 min
Format: DCP