Launch was filmed with the
generous cooperation of NASA and the Kennedy Space Center. Shot in 2005
while hurricane Ophelia lingered off the Florida coast, the wildlife found
throughout the space center and in the adjacent Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge came to extraordinary life. The film documents the 2005
launch of space shuttle Discovery, STS-114,
our anxiously awaited
return to space following the Columbia disaster of 2003.
Several compelling contemporary issues lend context to Launch:
the many recent large-scale natural disasters that have shaken the world; the
ever-increasing human impact and manipulation of the weather; and our varied
ambitions for space and conquest. The film imagines the day when humankind
must face the overwhelming force of nature and attempt to escape it. It is
a meditation on the end of an era and the beginning of a drastically different
and unpredictable future.
Credits:
Director/Camera/Editor/Sound: Brian Doyle
Producer: Sue Butler
Original Music: Kurt Brondo, Tianna Kennedy, Chad Laird, Hannah Marcus, Jeffery
McCord
Production Assistance: Scott Corley, John Schneider, Mic Knight
additional camera: Mic Knight
Graphics Support: Ya-Hsuan Huang
Editing Assistance: Ry Russo-Young
