Imagine a world in which there was a movie about this telescope and a bus that looked like it. // NASA
You may have seen a lot of documentaries in your quest for enlightenment, and you may have funded a few sci-tech projects on Kickstarter in your attempt at philanthropy, but you’ve probably never seen the film
Saving Hubble, and it’s even more likely you haven’t helped it reach a wider audience (an audience that includes you).
David Gaynes spent nine years making this documentary, which follows the struggles and triumphs involved in keeping everyone’s favorite image-maker — the Hubble Space Telescope — in space and in observation mode.
To maximize the film’s impact on individual human beings, Gaynes has started a program called the Hubble Roadshow. He arranges screenings of the film and pairs them with star parties; planetarium shows; discussions between professionals, amateurs, and those who are just curious about our place in the universe; live music to listen to; and food to metabolize. The festival-style Roadshow events are part of Saving Hubble’s grassroots distribution campaign, but they also reflect the filmmaker’s ideas about the telescope bringing people closer to the cosmos and closer to each other. As he says, “Hubble's story is about how we choose to connect to the universe; sharing Hubble's story means helping connect people to a sense of wonder — space, the moving image, each other.”
Eventually, Gaynes wants to be able to give the movie away for free, but not just at one-at-a-time events. Saving Hubble could be in theaters, on television, and available for streaming on the Internet. It could be, that is, if Gaynes raises $60,000 before February 20, 2013. He needs this money to pay for copyrighted images and footage in his film, which would allow him to distribute the movie to a wider audience.
What if you could take that special someone on a date to a movie about “[engendering] a sense of wonder in each other”? Wouldn’t that be great?
If you would like to support an independent filmmaker on a grassroots quest to share “the great many things we have in common as humans, hurtling into the void of space," consider giving to his RocketHub campaign.
And, bonus, if he raises more than the $60,000, he will do fun things like create a traveling “Hubble bus,” a “chrome-plated school bus fitted with deployable solar panels so the bus itself would be a mobile teaching lab modeled on Hubble's design.” And who wouldn’t want to see that driving down the street?
For more information, visit www.savinghubble.com or connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HubbleRoadshow.