In Unseen Skies, filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem follows visionary artist Trevor Paglen as he develops his most ambitious project yet. From the remote deserts of Nevada to orbit around the Earth, and employing tools ranging from nineteenth-century photographic techniques to artificial intelligence, Paglen explores how technologies once heralded as instruments of progress have become mechanisms of control.

The film poses an urgent question: what does it mean to be seen in a world where looking equals power? Seeing and being seen are never neutral—both carry their own forms of authority. With stunning cinematography, Unseen Skies unfolds as a sharp reflection on mass surveillance and the military-industrial complex, reminding us of art’s capacity to teach us how to look at what usually remains hidden.