As we close this month of Thanksgiving, The Stars at Night Team wanted to reach out to thank you and all of our supporters and share an update.
At little over a year ago, we had our core expert interviews in the can, including mythologist and creative consultant Dr. John Bucher, Artist and astronomer, Dr. Tyler Nordgren, Archeologist Dr. Carolyn Boyd, and night sky educator, Amy Jackson.
In the spring, we were blessed with the wonderful support of our two new executive producers, Tom Copeland, and Rick Duffield. Because of their contributions to our project through our partner non-profit EAA, Inc, we were able to shoot the young filmmaker part of our documentary’s journey to the Big Bend, and take filmmakers Olivia Baker, Mykal Bayne, Nader Yusef, and Will Fitzpatrick on a sojourn in which each one created their own film during our trip to the desert and mountains of far west Texas. It was beautiful, challenging, great fun and hot! VisitBigBend.com was a tremendous help, allowing Madison Shiller to guide us to our multiple locations, as well as treat us to an amazing dinner at the Starlight Restaurant in Terlingua. The filmmakers hiked, kayaked, and yes, communed with the stars. Some of each person’s film has made its way into the edit and we are thrilled with the result.
So, stay tuned!
Back in the Hill Country, we were excited to interview Chickasaw storyteller Amy Bluemel at the beautiful Wittliff Collection.
Later in the summer we were welcomed by the Witte Museum and had the opportunity to interview Dr. Harry Shaefer about the Lower Pecos exhibit and had a discussion about how these people from the lower Pecos lived and developed their cultural cosmology.
Then in October, we had the chance to scout the location for our winter solstice shoot and were thrilled to meet the people that guided us on our tour to this beautiful 4,000-year-old painting that, according to Dr. Carolyn Boyd, who has conducted literally a lifetime of research on the subject, tells the story of “the birth of the sun and the creation of time.” It was a stunning experience.
In mid-November, we had the opportunity to interview Dr. Frank de la Teja, history professor Emeritus at Texas State, who shared with us the context of the journey taken by Cabeza de Vaca and detailed in his 16th Century book, La Relacion. We are grateful to the Wittliff Collection for allowing us to film such a precious antiquity.
As we look forward to our shoot in December on the winter solstice, we wanted to share our final opportunity for one more Executive Producer to join us, to make this film come to fruition. If you’d like to come on board as an Executive Producer or would like to donate as part of #GivingTuesday, please contact us here. Our strategy is to create a rough cut, trailer, and highlight reel to begin to present to buyers at Real Screen in Austin in January 2022.
Here’s looking forward to 2022 and entering the final stretch of production and post for the Stars at Night.
Elizabeth (Betty) Buckley