On Monday, August 30, 2021, director Thomas Verrette held a VIP screening of his new documentary Zero Gravity at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Zero Gravity is a documentary that follows a diverse group of intelligent middle schoolers from San Jose, California, on their journey to competing in a nationwide satellite coding tournament at the International Space Station.
Throughout the course of the film, Zero Gravity highlighted three incredible students: Carol Gonzalez, an 11-year-old Mexican-American with a big heart and even bigger dreams of becoming a robotics engineer; Advik Gonugunta, a 10-year-old Indian-American with a natural inclination for coding and a fascination with the tech world; and Adrien Engelder, an 11-year-old American with a passion for all things under the sea and climate change prevention, with a drive to become a marine biologist.
These three amazing children and their coach Tanner Marcoida, a first-time teacher of the Zero Robotics middle school program, shared their intimate and personal journey into space with the audience. There were tears, there was laughter, and a lot of hard work as these three led their California team into the Zero Robotics finals by programming their SPHERES satellites.
Several real-life astronauts added to the educational element of this breathtaking emotional journey — Jack D. Fischer, Cady Coleman, and Steve Smith — lent their experience and expertise to this fascinating documentary.
Zero Robotics is a yearly competition in which thousands of students across the world compete in the ISS Finals
performed by real astronauts in orbit. The mission behind this incredible program is to inspire a new generation of great minds by giving them access to space at middle school and high school levels. If you are looking for a touching, heartfelt, good feels but immersive educational documentary, Zero Gravity would be a fabulous choice.
For upcoming screenings, more information, or to get involved, visit zerogravityfilm.com.