The 2017 Solar Eclipse is almost upon us. Throughout history, people have feared, worshipped, celebrated, and investigated eclipses. They're a thrilling visual phenomenon that inspires reflection about our place in the solar system and vast universe beyond.
Eclipses have also inspired creative filmmaking across the world. To celebrate the 2017 solar eclipse, we present a Spotlight of films representing the power and beauty of the dark sun.
In "Eclipse of Taregna," an old man takes his grandson to witness a solar eclipse in this beautifully rendered view of life in a small town in India.
Mr. Pathak is a retired civil engineer and lives in Taregna, a small town in India. He is worn out by life’s many setbacks and is indifferent to his family – Laxmi, his daughter-in-law and Roshan, his 8-year old grandson. The announcement by NASA that the best place to watch an upcoming solar eclipse will be Taregna, has no impact on Pathak. However, Roshan’s curiosity for the celestial event of a lifetime is boundless. When Pathak finally realizes that Roshan desperately needs a father figure, he can no longer remain a bystander to life.
The abstract and starkly beautiful film "Brilliant Noise" takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor has brought together some of the sun's finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise.
"Essere e Tempo" is a film about lunar eclipse, shot at the astronomical observatory OACL (Mosciano Sant’Angelo - Italy) in collaboration with the astronomer Giorgio Clemente. It's a visual metaphor of the Being according to Parmenides, as a mean that becomes the perception itself of the time flowing.
The film "Eclipse" portrays a solar eclipse as a transcendental ritual. Two worlds collide, and a secret gate is opened, allowing a male to reach a woman.
The animated film "El Sol Como un Gran Animal Oscuro" (The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal) portrays a metaphorical eclipse. "When a failed update causes a computer to become sentient, it falls in love with Allie. Feeling detached from the world, Allie is compelled to connect with her computer. Allie taps into the underlying essence of her surroundings through her computer, and for the first time, she is content. Together they experience the pain and beauty of their world. Once their unauthorized connection is discovered, Allie is taken away, and she is reprogrammed. Everything she had experienced and felt with her computer is wiped from her memory leaving her unchanged.
