Universe (1960 film)

Universe
Directed by	Roman Kroitor Colin Low
Produced by	Tom Daly
Written by	Roman Kroitor
Starring	Donald MacRae
Narrated by	Douglas Rain
Music by	Eldon Rathburn
Cinematography	Wolf Koenig
Edited by	Tom Daly
Distributed by	NFB
Release dates	May 1960
Running time	29 min.
Country	Canada
Language	English

Universe is a black-and-white short documentary made in 1960 by the National Film Board of Canada. It "creates on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed."

This visualization is grounded in the nightly work of Dr. Donald MacRae, an astronomer at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, a facility formerly owned and operated by the University of Toronto, Canada, and now operated by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Using the technology of his era, MacRae prepares his largely manually operated equipment and then photographs, by long exposure, one star. He actually strikes an arc between iron electrodes and makes a simultaneous exposure, which he can compare to the star's spectrum to determine its movement relative to Earth.

The film was a nominee at the 33rd Academy Awards in the category of Best Documentary Short Subject in 1961.

Douglas Rain did the narration for the English version; the French version was titled Notre univers with narration by Gilles Pelletier. Eldon Rathburn composed the musical score.

Influence on 2001

After this work, co-director Colin Low worked with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey. His work on this short may have influenced Kubrick to begin his project. Kubrick chose Universe narrator Douglas Rain as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer and also hired Wally Gentleman, who did optical effects for the NFB documentary, to work on 2001.

Release

NASA alone ordered over 300 prints of the film. By 1976, the NFB had sold over 3100 copies of the film, and it was one of the most widely distributed educational films ever made.

Awards

Academy Awards Best Documentary Short Subject - nomination; Canadian Film Awards – Film of the Year, Theatrical Short; BAFTA – Animated Short; Cannes Film Festival – Jury Prize for Animation.

External links

• Watch Universe at the NFB website
• Universe at IMDb