Hope in the Stars
One woman’s celestial search for answers to earthly challenges.
Alexis Smith, a zoologist turned filmmaker, embarks on an extraordinary journey into the unknown as she joins an underground network of individuals in Aotearoa dedicated to making contact with extraterrestrial life. Through meditation under the stars, this group seeks to invite otherworldly visitors to Earth, not for spectacle, but in a quest for wisdom and a hope to find healing for a world teetering on the edge.
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About the Filmmakers
Director: Alexis Smith
Alexis is a multi-award-winning director from Scotland. Her Zoology degree sent her to faraway lands like the Amazon rainforest, Red Sea and Madagascar. In 2014, she joined the BBC and set off around Europe and the USA, making primetime documentaries for worldwide broadcast. Since moving to Aotearoa in 2018, she has directed documentaries for all the major platforms, including music series ‘The Collective’ (2021) and the adventure film ‘TE ARA – The Path’ (2023), both of which received critical acclaim and multiple awards locally and internationally. Having travelled most of Earth, she’s now setting her sights on other planets.
Producer: Harry Wynn
Harry is the 2023 recipient of the SPADA New Filmmaker Award and is mentored by acclaimed documentary director Sally Aitken through Script to Screen’s FilmUp programme. Harry is directing the series, ‘We’ve Always Been Here’, about Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA+ history, set for release on TVNZ during Pride 2025. He has written and directed three documentaries ranging in topics from methamphetamine use within Auckland’s gay community, Chlöe Swarbrick’s momentous 2020 campaign run and a teenage competitive bodybuilder. Harry has also production managed several TV series for companies such as Greenstone, Attitude and NIWA.