by MIlad Tangshir
Italia, Iran, 2019, 80'
The history of humans has been marked by the triggering question: "Where are we?"
Star Stuff is a journey to four observatories in four different continents (Chile, South Africa, Canary Island & Tibet), in search for human place in the cosmos. By interviewing the veterans operating those telescopes, the documentary uncovers their personal revelations in order to understand why astronomy is such a humbling experience. Exploring the night sky, the film discovers that all human share a dot in the cosmic ocean and it reveals how insignificant human conflicts and misunderstandings are.
Nearby those observatories, small communities live in remote villages. The film penetrates into their daily life and explores their dreams and passions. Four places so distant to one another, but inhabited by people who all share the same vulnerability and longings for life. They all are connected through a secret bond to the universe: their body atoms come from exploded stars.
The documentary then aims at exploring the life, values and principles of the main characters of this journey: the cosmologists and the people living in the villages nearby the observatories.
The film opens a road towards rediscovering humility and love through the understanding of human size and place as insignificantly small compared to the vastness of the universe. The film reveals humbling facts about human existence, a way to realizing our experience of life is too short to be spent on destroying ourselves and creating conflicts. Through the film we’ll rip down all the preconceptions that we have made of ourselves, and show the equal essence of humans in different parts of this fragile planet.
For years I have been obsessed with these thoughts. You cannot pretend that nothing has happened. They haunt you forever. Also as an immigrant; every day I can feel the global need for more kindness and compassion. This is the style of documentary that I have been experimenting with, during my brief career. I have made short documentaries about human connections and their relationship with their place and time, and especially about the existence, acceptance, or promotion of universal values in different cultures.
Director
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Doc Film Fund - produzione giugno 2018
Last update: 20 November 2019