BLAST!
BLAST! from Imagine Science Films on Vimeo.
Astrophysicist geeks and the scientifically challenged alike, enjoy! Follow along on a hardcore, risk-filled, scientific adventure into the heart of the Big Bang. In the ongoing attempt to unlock the mysteries of the origins of the universe, an international team of ultra-adventurous astrophysicists, led by Dr. Mark Devlin, filmmaker Paul Devlin’s brother, is aiming to launch a multi-million dollar telescope attached to a NASA high-altitude balloon. And therein begins the risky and revolutionary challenges that ceaselessly plague a tireless world-class research team. Every computer chip, every mirror fragment and even an ill-placed workman’s glove could spell success or disaster. As the telescope and team travel from Kiruna, Sweden, to Victoria Island, deep in the Canadian North, and to Antarctica, BLAST! tells a human story-the daily frustrations, enormous sacrifices, catastrophic failures and transcendent triumphs-of scientific pursuit.
PAUL DEVLIN, Director, Producer, Editor
A five-time Emmy winner for his work on NBC’s Olympics and CBS’s Tour de France, Paul Devlin’s films include Power Trip, which screened in 60 countries, theatrically across the United States and on PBS’s Independent Lens, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and has won 10 film festival awards, including top prizes at Berlin, Hot Docs in Toronto, and Florida.
Paul also made the award-winning film SlamNation, which follows the fierce competition at the National Poetry Slam and helped popularize the dynamic genre with its release in theaters and on HBO/Cinemax and Encore/Starz. Paul’s current projects include BLAST! and Super Star Dumb.
BLAST! was presented at the 2006 IFP Market and 2007 Toronto Documentary Forum attracting co-production partners BBC Storyville, Discovery Channel Canada, SVT/Sweden, and YLE/FST Finland. Paul was awarded the 2007 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artists Grant for $25,000 through IFP fiscal sponsorship.
Other credits include his fiction film The Eyes of St. Anthony and his work as producing editor on the Organic Film FREESTYLE: The Art of Rhyme, broadcast on VH1 and winner of the Special Jury Award for Documentary Filmmaking at the Florida Film Festival.
As an editor, Paul’s extensive credits include commercials, music videos (Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny G), television shows and major sports broadcasts, including CBS’s Super Bowls and ABC/ESPN’s World Cup Soccer.
Paul is a New Jersey native and graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. There he assisted Robert Altman on his film Secret Honor and took a screenwriting seminar with Lawrence Kasden. Paul has visited over 40 countries, professionally and aimlessly and has exhibited photographs of his travels. He has contributed to The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Independent, and Cineaste, among others.
CLAIRE MISSANELLI, Producer
Claire Missanelli co-produced Power Trip, which won 2 jury awards at the prestigious Berlin film festival and was screened in 60 countries, including the United States. It was broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens, nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award, and garnered 8 other film festival awards including best documentary feature at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto. She is currently working as a producer on the documentaries Super Star Dumb and BLAST!, which was presented at the 2006 IFP Market and 2007 Toronto Documentary Forum. Other films include SlamNation, a documentary that illuminates the vibrant slam poetry movement, which broadcast on HBO/Cinemax and Encore/Starz. She also works as a consulting and outreach producer for documentary projects.
LOUSIE ROSEN, Co-Producer
Louise Rosen is a media executive with over 25 years experience in international television and film finance and distribution. She has set up numerous, award-winning co-productions between producers and broadcasters around the world including recipients of the Oscar, the Emmy, the International Emmy, the Grimme Prize, the Prix Italia and Sundance Festival Awards. In addition to BLAST!, current projects include Secrecy from Robb Moss and Peter Galison (Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca Film Fests), 1000 Journals from Andrea Kreuzhage (AFI Fest Los Angeles, Berlinale) and Killer Poet (Hot Docs Film Fest) and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (in post production) from Northern Light Productions. www.louiserosenltd.com
JULIE ANDERSON, Consulting Producer
Julie Anderson, director of Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, has a long career in television production. She began her work as a producer at ESPN, contributing on SportsCenter, the Olympics, the NFL and NBA. She later worked as a production liaison for Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live. After a five-year stint as a documentary filmmaker at HBO Sports, Anderson was hired as an executive at HBO Original Programming by Sheila Nevins, President of HBO Documentaries.
Over her ten years at HBO, Anderson produced and directed many award-winning features and documentaries, including the Peabody Award winning documentary Dare To Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports, about the history of the fight for women¹s equality in sports, and the Emmy® Award-winning Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World. She served as associate producer on the Academy Award®-nominated 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 bombing of the Birmingham Baptist Church in Alabama.
Anderson recently departed her position as Director of Documentary Programming at HBO to found her own production company, Lioness Productions. She has been producing, consulting and developing projects for among others, Russell Simmons¹ production company, The Simmons Lathan Media Group, Court TV, BET as well as a wide variety of cable and network broadcast companies.
Over her career, Anderson has garnered four Emmy® Awards, several CableACE Awards, and two Peabody Awards for her work on documentary films. She was a 2001 Sundance Institute Fellow and is a consultant for the Hamptons International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Aspen Comedy Festivals. A native of Scarsdale, NY, Anderson graduated from the University of Vermont and now lives in New York City.
RICHARD MARTINEZ , Composer
Richard Martinez was born in Chicago and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has worked as a performer, music director, music producer and composer in New York City since his arrival in 1978. Martinez is a film and theater composer with credits that include the The Last Conquistador, an ITVS documentary that will air on the 2008 POV season, the play Viva La Vida! starring Mercedes Ruehl at the 2006 Bay St. Theater season, the feature film Take the Bridge, a Tribeca Film Festival Selection, the feature Harvest of Redemption awarded best film in the foreign drama category at the Los Angeles International Family Film Festival, and Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, on the short list for a 2005 Oscar nomination. He also composed two tangos for the film Bossa Nova, by Brazilian director Bruno Barreto, and he wrote original music for The Daytrippers, a Steven Soderbergh production directed by Greg Mottola. Richard’s music also appears on recordings by Dave Valentin, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Al MacDowell.
As Electronic Music Producer, Martinez has worked with celebrated composer Elliot Goldenthal on countless Hollywood movie scores. He played on the score of Across the Universe, directed by Julie Taymor, and was the Electronic Music Producer for the Academy award-winning score to Frida as well as other Hollywood films. On Broadway, Martinez was Musical Director for The Green Bird, directed by Tony Award winner Julie Taymor. Off Broadway he was Musical Director and performer for the Theatre for a New Audience production of Titus Andronicus, and for the Music Theatre Group Production of The Transposed Heads, both with music by Elliot Goldenthal and directed by Julie Taymor.
Other composers he has worked with include John Corigliano, Ennio Morricone, Jason Kao Hwang, Howard Shore, Rachel Portman, Stewart Wallace, Michael Gordon, Terence Blanchard and John Williams. He has performed and recorded with Bono, Betty Buckley, Carly Simon, Gregory Hines, Dave Valentin, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Harry Belafonte, and George Russell.
www.lightbodymusic.com
