MIRROR 215 Documentary in pre-production

MIRROR 215 is a documentary about a community of workers who periodically climb the mountain to guarantee the international astronomical world the operation of the most important observatory in Argentina, at least 360 days a year. The micro stories of this disparate community during 4 weeks the represent the four seasons of the year. A cook, a mechanic, an astronomer are part of this group of 8 eight people who try to coexist in the mountain relating in very different ways with the work they have to do. These workers face difficult conditions at 2500 meters of altitude, in a hostile desert surrounded by pumas, loneliness and stars. With very few resources they try to keep a giant telescope working. The goal is clear and seems impossible: not to lose a single day of observation due to technical failures.

The history of the telescope is an unusual pharaonic project that began in the middle of the Second World War, in the 1940s, with the idea that Argentina would have the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere, under the code name “Peron Telescope”. How did a telescope that was supposed to be at the top of a mountain end up in a valley?

This will be the starting point of a voice-over that will run throughout the documentary. A carousel of unusual situations and Latin American political ups and downs turned the project into a ghost of what could have been. Yesterday interspersed with today and the story of a community that seems to be working on a meaningless project will perhaps prove that it is still worthwhile to do cutting-edge science in a peripheral country.