Austin Film Festival 2008

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The Atom Smashers
Monica Long Ross, Clayton Brown
Categories: Documentary Feature Competition
Average Rating:
Rated 3.69160747269286/5 Stars
My Rating:
Run time: 73 min.
The Atom Smashers chronicles the international competition to find a subatomic particle so important it's been called "the god particle." Top US physicists search for it using the Tevatron, a cantankerous 40-year old machine four miles long buried beneath the Illinois prairie. They're close to making the discovery of a lifetime. But a new, more powerful European machine is poised to come online soon, and when US science budgets are slashed, Fermilab scientists learn that the Tevatron will close just as Europe's machine is scheduled to activate. This fantastic documentary is equal parts science and human drama, watching its amiable characters work and live in and out of the laboratory, examining the intersection between science, politics and culture on an international scale.
Screenings
time venue calendar
8:00 PM     Thu, Oct 16 Hideout + add to cal
5:15 PM     Sun, Oct 19 Hideout + add to cal
About the film
Cast & Crew
director
Clayton Brown
Monica Long Ross
Audience Buzz
Rated 3.69160747269286/5 Stars
3.7 | 9
views 736 people viewed this page
adds 90 people added it to their calendar (find out who)
Featured Review
Rated 3.0/5 Stars
gsmckinney
5:57 PM
User Thumbnail
a bit more drama would have been good, and more explanation of the Higgs boson particle
From the blog
Hello again!
Well, it's been a long, long time! Apologies for the delay. We've been incredibly busy on our next film, called The Experiment. As yet, we have to keep it under wraps, because the people involved are quite touchy. I've been itching to write about it, and even to set up a new blog for it, but suffice it to say many of the people talking to us are skittish about speaking in public. They are worried about the wrong kind of publicity, so we have to approach them with some caution. We've been using The Atom Smashers as evidence that we are conscientious filmmakers, and have been honest and direct, and have met with mostly success. However, just the other day, someone we contacted about an interview declined because he only would feel comfortable speaking with "established media outlets." It's been a pretty wild ride --- when we get through with production, I'll start a new blog and direct you to it.

On to other news, though --- we have a new office! We haven't moved in yet, but here are some pictures, courtesy Stef Foster (who shot most of the pretty shots in The Atom Smashers)
It's long and narrow, but works for us... this is Amy (our new assistant editor volunteer), Carole (our new Associate Producer), and me. As you can see, we don't have any furniture yet, except for the tables and some shelves. We'll end up with about three workstations when all is said and done.


This is Peter, our grants / funds coordinator, and Monica (co-director). The writing on the wall was left over from the previous tenants in this space, who were a printing company. They've agreed to make us business cards and letterhead ... for free! Very lucky for us. The building manager has scraped off all the writing by now ... a tedious job.


As part of the deal we have access to a really nice conference room for our board meetings. Here's Monica underneath a cool feature of the building --- the owners have a million dollar + collection of old posters, some of which are 12 feet tall. They're incredible. Makes for a really nice environment. The only problem is this room is a little dark --- there are about 20 small halogen lights and all of them except 2 are burned out. From what we understand, we're the only ones interested in using this space; most of the other tenants have their own conference rooms, so it's likely no one has noticed. I have a feeling they'll fix them once we point it out. There's also a 4th floor outdoor deck with a great view of downtown...

Here's the other end of the board table, with Peter, Andy (one of our board members), and Carole. And finally, Andrew, very excited.


So, despite the fact that this blog has been virtually ignored for a couple of months, we've been extremely busy! Also, we will soon be sending out mailers across the country to high schools, museums, and science labs to try to acquire some screenings. We've got a 15-minute postscript to the film that will bring many of the events up to date, as well as some teaching materials. I'll likely be creating some more posts as that happens.

That's the latest --- look for more soon!
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Disclaimer: No cameras or recording devices of any kind are permitted in AFF screenings or panels. This includes cell phones with cameras. Some screenings may require you to check your phone, camera, or other device with security personnel. AFF reserves the right to confiscate any and all recording devices being used during any AFF event. We advise that you not bring such devices to screenings.