BEST DOCUMENTARY
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SEARCHING: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science
Genre: Not Available
Run Time: 1 hour 39 minutes
SYNOPSIS
How is it possible that falling in love, feeling connected to nature, and experiences of awe and wonder, can all arise from the material atoms of our bodies? Can science explain such complex human experiences? Can a computer achieve consciousness? And what does it mean to be human in a world of increasing science and technology? In “SEARCHING: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science,” physicist and novelist Alan Lightman (Einstein’s Dreams) embarks on a journey across time and space to ponder these questions. In the course of his odyssey, he speaks with Nobel-prize winning scientists, leading ethicists and philosophers, faith leaders (including the Dalai Lama), a paralyzed ex-gang member who was the first person to have computer chips implanted in an area of his brain that allowed him to move a robotic arm by pure thought, and even an advanced humanoid android named BINA48, one of the few African-American AI’s.
Lightman’s journey begins on a warm summer night off the coast of Maine and ends on a freezing mountain top in the Swiss Alps. Along the way, he marvels at cave paintings in Les Eyzies, France; Galileo’s original telescopes in Florence Italy; visits a giant atom smasher in Geneva, Switzerland; the laboratories of scientists engaged in creating a living cell from scratch and of other scientists who built LIGO, which detected gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes, 1.3 billion light years away. Gorgeous in its 4K DCI cinematography, and with 5.1 Surround sound, the film is directed by Geoff Haines-Stiles (Carl Sagan’s Cosmos) and includes original music by Zoe Keating. Production was supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Earth, Skies and Snakes
Genre: Not Available
Run Time: 1 hour 6 minutes
SYNOPSIS
A voyage to Nepal, an encounter with the shamans, an exploration of the beyond. This poetic film follows the filmmaker and her dead brother to the foothills of the majestic and mystical Himalayas.
