Why a film about the McDonald Observatory and its west Texas home? On one hand, the film will highlight a future where dark skies and our ability to see the night’s stars disappear. And then in a world where the buzz in astronomy is largely centered around telescopes in outer space and gigantic new facilities in Chile’s Atacama desert, the McDonald Observatory continues to hold its own as a premiere research and teaching institute. It is responsible not only for transformational discoveries about the planet’s history and solar system, but also for sparking wonder in multitudes of stargazers. And it deserves to be celebrated by a global audience. The Stars in Their Eyes will facilitate this by introducing viewers to the magic and beauty of the place, the telescopes, and the cast of endlessly entertaining characters who bring the McDonald Observatory to life, while making the science accessible and reminding people of all ages and backgrounds that profound beauty readily available to them every single day. They simply need to wait for the sun to go down then gaze upward at the night sky.
A model for this film is Yosemite: The Fate of Man, a documentary made by MacArthur Award winner and multiple Oscar nominated filmmaker Jon Else. Set in Yosemite National Park, Else’s film interweaves vignettes featuring people who work in and visit the park with an historical narrative. The documentary is not only about the national park, but also about man’s relationship with and need for wilderness, and it as relevant today as it was thirty years ago, when the film was made. Director Paul Stekler has worked with Else on several projects and, for more twenty years, Stekler introduced UT production students to Yosemite as a paradigm of artful craftsmanship and powerful storytelling.
The Stars in Their Eyes will be produced as a feature length documentary for national television, particularly for PBS’s Nova science series. Beyond that, the film will be given to the McDonald Observatory for use both in the Bash Visitor’s Center and on the observatory’s website, and to aid in the observatory’s fundraising efforts. Supporting McDonald is an integral part the film project’s mission.