In 2003, NASA sent the exploration rover Opportunity on a mission to Mars. Intended to analyze rock and soil samples and expected to have a lifespan of only 90 days, the rover instead lived on for 15 years and continued to share vital dispatches from the Red Planet it now called home. With its devotion to its mission and its indomitable spirit, the rover earned the nickname Oppy and won the hearts of the earthbound NASA staff.
Their affection is shared and reflected by Ryan White, who helms this comprehensive documentary that doubles as an open-hearted, intergalactic underdog tale. Reassembling the key figures involved with Oppy’s mission, exhuming incredible archival footage, and collaborating with Industrial Light & Magic on awe-inspiring recreations, Good Night Oppy reminds us of friendship’s capacity to transcend tremendous distances and celebrates an extraordinary robot’s ability to bring out the best in its human colleagues.
Media Partner
Angela Bassett, Brandon Goldberg
USA
2022
English
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
La Grazia
A contemplative, mournful but richly imagined movie about a retiring Italian President (Toni Servillo from The Great Beauty) facing two thorny ethical decisions that may define his legacy.
Image: © Andrea Pirrello
Innocence
Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale set in a private school for young girls, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he'd been born a French woman in the early 1960s.
Where to Land
Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.
La venue de l'avenir
Four cousins are tapped to investigate an abandoned house that is their joint inheritance. As they explore, they learn their story of their ancestor Adele (Suzanne Lindon) and her foray into Paris in the age of Impressionism.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
Credits
Executive Producer
Stephen Neely, Max Wagner, Ryan Schiavo
Producer
Ryan White, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank
Screenwriter
Ryan White, Helen Keams
Cinematography
David Paul Jacobson
Editor
Helen Keams, Rejh Cabrera
Original Music
Blake Neely
Director
Ryan White
Ryan White’s most recent directorial work, Coded (2021), won Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. His other work includes the five-part documentary series Visible: Out on Television, and the Emmy-nominated series The Keepers. He also directed The Case Against 8 (2014), which was nominated for two Emmys and for which he won a Directing Award at Sundance; Serena (2016), a year in the life of tennis legend Serena Williams; and Good Ol’ Freda (2013), the story of The Beatles’ longtime secretary Freda Kelly.
Filmography: Good Ol’ Freda (2013); The Case Against 8 (2014); Serena (2016); Ask Dr. Ruth (2019)