"The Astronomer" - This lyrical documentary features excerpts from an interview with Professor Tom Burns of Ohio Wesleyan University and Director of Perkins Observatory. The film has screened in Greece, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, New York and other locations, and gained a significant online following in 2015.
// Original Score by Jósep Gíslason.
// "The Astronomer" on SPLOID, Gizmodo's "Blog of delicious brain candy."
// sploid.gizmodo.com/a-passionate-speech-that-will-teach-your-kids-how-the-u-1689353986#
// April 2015: “The Astronomer” opened COSMOS 2015, Midlands Astronomy's annual conference, held in April of this year in Athlone, Ireland. William Bean wrote to me: "We opened with the film last Saturday. Great reaction whole room speechless. Got everyone in the mood."
midlandsastronomy.com/cosmos-2015-page/index-cosmos.html
// January 2015: “The Astronomer” screened at 28th Stuttgarter Filmwinter Expanded Media Festival on 17 January, 2015 in the Patenfilme (Godmother/Godfather) program. The film was selected and championed by Thi Bui, vimeo.com/ducthibui. *Suttgarter Filmwinter Mission: “The Stuttgarter Filmwinters is an international prestigious festival of short and experimental film as well as of new media. The festival is a lab for new forms of perception and conveyance. With it's strongly multimedia and border-crossing focus, Filmwinter attempts the cinema of tomorrow.”
// Pre-show entertainment, December 2014 - January 2015, Gateway Film Center, all screenings of INTERSTELLAR. gatewayfilmcenter.com
// Opening Film, 2014, COSMOS Premiere, Gateway Film Center, gatewayfilmcenter.com.
-- Panel discussion with Professor Tom Burns of Ohio Wesleyan University, Director of the Perkins Observatory and Dr. Michael Stamatikos, Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at The Ohio State University at Newark and a NASA-affiliated Astrophysicist, and Phil Garrett.
// Official Selection, Lunacon 2014, lunacon.org, New York Science Fiction Society
// Official Selection, 2013 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com
// Official Selection, 2013 ISFFA, International Science Film Festival of Athens (Athens, Greece) caid.gr/?page_id=549
// Official Selection, 2013 Film Festival of Columbus filmfestivalofcolumbus.com
// Opened for GRAVITY, Gateway Film Center, October 7th, 2013 + talkback with Professor Tom Burns, Professor and NASA Astrophysicist, Dr. Michael Stamatikos, and Phil Garrett.
// Curated Exhibition: "Ad Interim: Process Oriented Works From The School Of Design Arts At CCAD" September 19th through October, Shot Tower Gallery at Fort Hayes. fthayes.com/fthayes.com/Gallery.html
// Columbus Moving Image Art Review, Fall 2012 movingimageart.wordpress.com/cmiar-artists/
Online
// Scientific Literacy Matters
scientificliteracymatters.com/2015/03/we-are-the-part-of-the-universe-that-knows-the-universe/
// Astronomical Society of East Texas (ASET) asetexas.com
// Candlelight Stories, the blog of photographer/filmmaker Alessandro Cima candlelightstories.com
// Magnolia’s Atlas malagolasatlas.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-astronomer-film-by-phil-garrett.html
// Sorekara 2.0 sorekara20.blogspot.com/2012/12/phil-garrett-astronomer.html
// Ain't It Cool's Saturday Shorts, February 16th, 2013: aintitcool.com/node/61020
Video Background
// Interview conducted at Perkins Observatory, Delaware, Ohio, Friday, 11 May 2012.
// Directed/edited by Phil Garrett, shot by Alan Weisenberger.
// Special Thanks to Prof. Tom Burns.
// Project creative inspirations include the works of Caral Sagan, Terrence Malick, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Harlan Ellison, Jason Silva, Eliot Rausch, my fellow MFAs, Ridley Scott, Biosphere, Damon Lindeloff/Carlton Cuse, and many others.
*This is a non-commercial mashup/teaser/experimental film incorporating or inspired by:
/ Keiji Iwai Photography keijiiwai.com vimeo.com/keijiiwai
/ Sander van den Berg vimeo.com/user5612068
/ Michael König vimeo.com/michaelkoenig
/ NASA jpl.nasa.gov
**Under Creative Commons:
/ The Luminous Landscape vimeo.com/lumland
/ TSO Photography vimeo.com/terjes
"The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean...
Some part of our being knows this is where we came from.
We long to return… And we can.
Because the cosmos is also within us.
We're made of star stuff.
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
- Carl Sagan
