The IAA New Year Party is on Saturday 3 January, at 6.00 p.m., Mc Brides, The Square, Comber, Co Down, and 7.30 at the Tudor Cinema, Drumhirk Road, Comber. See the trailer here.
BLAST! Controversial Adventure Story to Screen at the Irish Astronomical Association New Year Party Welcome to Astrophysics, Indiana Jones style! Five-time Emmy winner Paul Devlin brings his newest film BLAST! to the Irish Astronomical Association New Year Party at the Tudor Private Cinema, Comber, Co Down offering an exciting, enlightening ride around the world and across the Universe. BLAST! follows the filmmakers brother, Mark Devlin, PhD, as he leads a tenacious team of astrophysicists hoping to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary telescope on a NASA high-altitude balloon. Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit polar bear country in As in director Paul Devlins award winning film Power Trip, BLAST! de-emphasizes talking head interviews and dispenses with anonymous narration in favour of capturing the action as it happens. Dynamic storytelling and unique access provide the rare opportunity to reveal the personal and family sacrifices, the obsessions, and even the philosophical questioning of scientists. BLAST! boldly threads through its narrative a dialogue on science and faith between two lead scientists one an agnostic and the other a Christian. The film allows its characters to discuss science and religious belief in a most natural way, and with a bit of humour states Larry Witham, author of By Design: Science and the Search for God. The typical science documentary omits the topic entirely. My intention is to expose a much larger audience to the fascinating lives of scientists by breaking with some of the conventional approaches to science material, comments Director Paul Devlin. This story had all the elements I needed. The extreme events provide the structure for a classically suspenseful narrative, with a built-in twist at the end. The access to my brothers private life builds emotional resonance, and when I found out that one of the lead scientists was also a devout Christian, I thought, Perfect! The frank look at these issues, especially the religious discussion, has caused controversy among some scientists, many of whom may feel embattled by religious fundamentalism in the Filmed on location in 7 countries on 5 continents, BLAST! will screen nationally and internationally in film festivals and in conjunction with the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Upcoming broadcasts of BLAST! so far include, BBC, Discovery BLAST! will screen at the Irish Astronomical Association New Year Party, 3rd January at the Tudor Private Cinema, Drumhirk Road, Comber, Co Down, BT 23 5LY, at THIS SCREENING IS SPONSORED BY A five-time Emmy winner for work on NBC's Olympics and CBS's Tour de France, Paul Devlin's films include Power Trip, which screened in 60 countries, theatrically across the US and on PBS Independent Lens, was nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award, and won 10 film festival awards, including prizes at Berlin, HOT DOCS, and Florida.
IAA NEW YEAR PARTY & FILM - Northern Ireland Premiere, from Terry Moseley: "I'm glad to be able to confirm that through the hard work and good offices of IAA Council Member Robert Hill we have been able to obtain the new film 'BLAST!' for its first ever showing in N.I., and only the second screening in Ireland (the first was in a film festival). We are very grateful to Armagh Observatory and the Northern Ireland Space Office (a.k.a Robert Hill) for sponsoring this special preview showing! It will get IYA 2009 off to a flying start for the IAA!