Meet the filmmakers
Makani teammates
Kate & Andrea were part of Makani’s Flight Testing team.
Kate Stirr, Writer & Director
Kate Stirr is a visual artist and storyteller from Oakland, California. Building on her experience as a hardware prototyper, wilderness traveler, and science educator, Kate’s work explores the shifting relationships between technology, people, and the world we inhabit. In her five years at Makani, Kate worked on flight hardware, built relationships with the communities near Makani’s test sites, documented flight tests, and led external communications. In Pulling Power From the Sky, Kate weaves together equal reverence for technical detail, the human spirit, and natural beauty.
Andrea Dunlap, Editor, Narrator, Cinematographer
Andrea Dunlap is an artist and digital storyteller living in Alameda, California. She makes work that exists at the intersection of beauty and scientific accuracy, with an emphasis on the the human moments that amplify our connection to technology and the natural world. Andrea spent fourteen years behind the camera at Makani, accelerating the team’s engineering process through technical footage of flight tests, documenting the passion and camaraderie of the team, and sharing Makani’s progress with the world. Pulling Power From the Sky skims the surface of Andrea’s masterful archive.
We want to tell stories about people who are working to make the world a better place.
Kate & Andrea specialize in demystifying and humanizing technical projects through powerful imagery, candid interviews, and accessible writing. Have a story to tell?
Kate airborne during a very quick stop while we checked on cameras near the kite before a test flight in the California Desert, 2017.
Ken Nekrash steadying the kite the first time we transported the kite with its tail still attached. Prior to this moment we would remove the tail for transport back and forth to the tent where the kite was maintained or stored during bad weather.