Tag: NASA

[Interview] Secret Space UFOs and Darcy Weir, What’s the Connection?

In this documentary series, Darcy Weir looks at what’s out there in Secret Space UFOs and he tries to deliver some answers.

Darcy Weir and UFOs Publicity ShotUncork’d Entertainment

Darcy Weir is a filmmaker on a mission with his latest series, Secret Space UFOs. He developed a fascination with the idea of a reality concealed from the public at an early age, and it led him down a path of discovery to explore various facets of occult culture.

I’m of a similar mindset, and while I also embrace the scarier side (ghosts) too, he’s more about the cryptids and aliens. They exist, but to get the public to accept they are hiding amongst us means getting to truths few documentaries seldom want to talk about. He believes Ufology is going mainstream, and that’s good for those who want to believe.

In his latest series, titled Secret Space UFOs, he’s exploring everything that is made publicly accessible or spoken of in hushed words. There’s NASA’s First Missions, Apollo 1 to 11, and now Fastwalkers. The latter debuted this week on various streaming channels, and it should’ve been grouped together with his past works. The latest is a continuation, and he said, “I cover a lot of NASA UFOs from 1973 post Apollo missions, all the way up until recent years.” Continue reading “[Interview] Secret Space UFOs and Darcy Weir, What’s the Connection?”

Flying Higher and Bolder with First to the Moon

First to the MoonRelease Date: June 4,  2019
Available on VOD & DVD on AmazonFirst to the Moon

Space, the final frontier… The 60s was a time filled with uncertainty. The Vietnam War, civil unrest and a dream—Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon and Russia put a man in space. It was a race to be the First to the Moon.

Director Paul Hildebrandt explains why America had to take chances during the Cold War in order to boldly go where no man has gone before and the result was inspiring. His two-hour documentary covers a lot of ground and has to dwell on the socio-political problems of the time to explain what everyone was facing. Despite a few setbacks, the Apollo mission was still a go and the result is inspiring.

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IMAX A Beautiful Planet, A Review

ABP_ArtFor the nearest screening near you, please check local listings.

A Beautiful Planet is a gorgeous film that only IMAX can capture. No other film format will do to capture what astronauts behold every day while living in the International Space Station (ISS). Most of the filming was done by those astronauts on their downtime and I suspect they were given minimal direction by writer/editor Toni Myers on what to catch on camera. I loved looking at the life on board this station more instead of looking down upon the planet Earth.

When peering down, weather systems can be examined, the spread of humans upon the continents are better understood (Moscow truly looks like Star City, even though that’s in Moscow Oblast), and the light from these cities is nothing but awe striking. My only nitpick is that when looking at this planet, I did not see much depth to this 3D product. Either my vision is not being perfect or the 3D compositors working on the conversation had no reference to give those scenes the feeling of looking far away real. Some layers of the atmosphere being peeled away as a camera drone entered it would have made for an excellent view. The 3D window to the world that is Earth was kind of flat even though it was rendered in fantastic Ultra 4K. When the type of camera brought aboard the station is a single lens model, the conversion to 3d should not have been done.

The look at the work the astronauts did inside the station to study the affects of living in space leapt at me more.

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Recognizing the Last Man on the Moon, A Documentary

I teared up when he admitted to his mistakes, and the notes he makes in The Last Man on the Moon are all the more poignant

The Last Man on the Moon Movie PosterAndy Kaufman is not the only man on the moon. His fame is different though. In the movie The Last Man on the Moon, director Mark Craig recognizes Captain Eugene “Gene” Cernan, the last person who stepped foot upon that ball of luminous glory we see in the sky, waxing and waning in a regular cycle.

Some lunar observers say it can influence people’s emotions. In this documentary’s case, it’s the feelings Cernan had in achieving his dreams. He was one of twelve men to be selected to be part of NASA‘s Apollo Space Program (1961 – 1975).

This film is a very personal one for Cernan. These days, he spends his time directing projects to further space exploration and he attends shows to inspire new generations to fly to the moon, but when or if that will happen will depend on NASA getting off their collective ass. These days, perhaps inspired by the movie The Martian, the goal is to reach Mars instead of figuring out a way to establish a lunar colony.

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Flying High with The Martian, A Review

The_Martian_film_poster

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Just when you think it’s safe to venture back into space after Chris Nolan’s Interstellar, think again. For actor Matt Damon, what was hinted at in one film says too much in what could happen in his next film, The Martian. Maybe the cosmos believes he’s simply a whipping boy. While his range of films have varied in quality over the years, thankfully he continues trudging on. While under the direction of Ridley Scott, he’s very likeable as Mark Watney, a castaway seemingly left for dead on the planet Mars.

The crew hurriedly left the planet because of a massive dust storm, and people at headquarters are at odds over what to do when everyone realizes Watney is still alive. I wondered how this film would work since it can not mirror the Tom Hanks film where he got lost at sea. Much of that did not have him talking to himself. Scott’s script and the book this movie is based on had Watney chronicling his life, so the people from the next mission can learn from his attempts to terraform the planet. He has to in order to survive, because he’s banking on hope that NASA will discover that he’s still alive.

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