DYNAMIC DOCUMENTARY WAKE UP DARKNESS CHARTS MODERN JOURNEY INTO AGE-OLD QUESTIONS

Transcription

1 DYNAMIC DOCUMENTARY WAKE UP DARKNESS CHARTS MODERN JOURNEY INTO AGE-OLD QUESTIONS WAKE UP DARKNESS, a dynamic new documentary charting a modern journey into age-old questions, will screen on April 12th at 5:30 in Tisch screening room 304. Imagine being 30 years old, thinking you have life all figured out, and then all your ideals collapse. In this remarkable 93-minute film, Director/Writer/Executive Producer Israel Kacyvenski explores his own seven-year journey from Christian-born fundamentalist to a 21st century understanding of reality.

2 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/2 The narrative of Kacyvenski s emotional, spiritual and intellectual struggles opens the door to interviews with 11 of America s most brilliant thinkers on psychology, physics, disease, evolution, religion, mythology and humanity s place and purpose in the cosmos. These experts include the following academic heavy hitters: cultural anthropologist Dirk van der Elst, Ph.D. (California State University, Fresno); philosopher Daniel Dennett, Ph.D. (co-director, Tufts University s Center for Cognitive Studies); theologian Laurie Patton, Ph.D. (Emory University); evolutionary psychologist Leda

3 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/3 Cosmides, Ph.D. (University of California, Santa Barbara); storyteller/mythologist Michael Meade (founder, Mosaic Multicultural Foundation); biological psychologist Victor Johnston, Ph.D (New Mexico State University); David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D. (University of New England, Maine) ; science historian Michael Shermer, Ph.D.( founding editor, Skeptic magazine); Robert Walter (president, Joseph Campbell Foundation); immunologist Gerald N. Callahan, Ph.D. (Colorado State University); and groundbreaking cosmologist/physicist Alan Guth, Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

4 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/4 If anything, I hope I m guilty of contributing a rich, healthy and meaningful dialogue into contemporary pop culture, says Kacyvenski, who will be present at the screening and lead a discussion afterward. We cannot and must not stop now, so we have to muster as much integrity as humanly possible and move forward, not backwards. As the experts answers in the film create progressive complications with Kacyvenski s religious view of the world, the audience gets a rare and provocative glimpse at the revolutionary power of science. However, the conclusion will astonish

5 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/5 both scientific and religious supporters alike, and Kacyvenski hopes the film will inspire viewers to reconsider not only his own path but their own life journeys. The questions in WAKE UP DARKNESS are the greatest questions in life that humans have been asking throughout our time as humans on earth, Kacyvenski says. What is reality? Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? What does the future ultimately hold?

6 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/6 Unfortunately, not everyone cares about these questions, but the decisions we make based on them as individuals and collectively strongly influence the outcome of our future, he adds. WAKE UP DARKNESS is 35-year-old Kacyvenski s first film, and with the exception of $1000 from two donors, all production costs were financed by his work as a tile setter craftsman. He recruited all the speakers simply by asking and then traveling at his own expense with a skeleton crew, and sometimes just a camera, to film them.

7 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/7 Along Kacyvenski s journey to complete WAKE UP DARKNESS, he inspired a small, dedicated team of collaborators including Nate Wallace Gusakov, a Vermont carpenter and musician who portrays Israel in the movie; Composer Lawrence Stacconi, who wrote, produced and performed the original score; Associate Producer Laura Scigliano; Contributing Editor Stan Rouse, a veteran editor for CNN and the Turner Networks; and Audio Technician J.C. Richardson, director of audio post production at

8 PRESS RELEASE: WAKE UP DARKNESS/8 Magick Lantern Studios, whose credits include work for BBC, CNN, CBS and PBS. For more information on WAKE UP DARKNESS, visit