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Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know Film Discussion with Peter Galison Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know Film Discussion with Peter Galison

“Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know” Film Discussion with Peter Galison

Peter Galison – Film Director

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

On April 27th, KISS affiliates were joined by film director Peter Galison for some in-depth Q&A after watching his documentary “Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know”. The film goes behind-the-scenes of the team capturing the first-ever image of a black hole and Stephen Hawking’s final publication. Affiliates observed the unfolding of this historic scientific moment through Peter’s artistic eye. After a surprise pop quiz, Peter provided the KISS affiliates with key insights into his story-telling arc, the importance of illustration and soundtracks, and his overall process of film-making.

Film Synopsis:

What can black holes teach us about the boundaries of knowledge? These holes in spacetime are the darkest objects and the brightest—the simplest and the most complex. With unprecedented access, Black Holes | The Edge of All We Know follows two powerhouse collaborations. Stephen Hawking anchors one, striving to show that black holes do not annihilate the past. Another group, working in the world’s highest altitude observatories, creates an earth-sized telescope to capture the first-ever image of a black hole. Interwoven with other dimensions of exploring black holes, these stories bring us to the pinnacle of humanity’s quest to understand the universe.

Check out the film for yourself: https://www.blackholefilm.com/watch

Director Biography:

Peter Galison is a physicist, historian of science, and filmmaker at Harvard University, where he is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor. In 1997, he was named a MacArthur Fellow; in 2017 he won the American Physical Society’s Abraham Pais Prize; and with his Event Horizon Telescope colleagues, Galison shared in the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the first image of a black hole. He is the author of several books, including How Experiments End; Image and Logic: A Material History of Microphysics; Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps; and (with L. Daston) Objectivity. Galison partnered (as dramaturg) with South African artist William Kentridge on a multi-screen installation, “The Refusal of Time” (2012) and an associated chamber opera. His documentary film (with Pamela Hogan, 2000) probed the moral-political debates over the H-bomb: Ultimate Weapon: The H-bomb Dilemma. He and Robb Moss co-directed Secrecy (2008), on national security secrecy, which premiered at Sundance. The two also co-directed Containment, (2015), about the need to guard radioactive materials and warn the 10,000-year future. Galison’s current film is on black holes: “The Edge of All We Know.”