Tinsel & Tine Highlights:

Philly Filmmaker John N. Campbell’s

By Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Remember the spectacular total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, which had people taking off from work, driving cross country to get a better ogle at it? We just had a partial eclipse January 5, 2019, these happen more often, but before 2017, the last total solar eclipse in the continental U.S. occurred 38 years ago on February 26, 1979. Unfortunately, not many people saw it because it clipped just five states in the Northwest and the weather for the most part was bleak. Before that one, you have to go back to March 7, 1970.
Which is why director/producer John N. Campbell felt compelled to capture this event as a documentary, which I haven’t seen yet; however, I ran across mention of it on Facebook and wanted to draw attention to the Philadelphia aspect; along with the fact that after movies and food, my other love is of things dealing with matters of science and mysticism or more accurately where the two meet. From what I understand, through interviews of those who witnessed this phenomena, Campbell was able to capture more than the event, but also covey the sense of wonder and spirit.

Here’s the Teaser Trailer:

I asked John to elaborate a bit on the Philly angle:

I interviewed members of the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers club who had witnessed the event. Louis Berman, President of DVAA, allowed me to attend a meeting and ask for volunteers to sit down for interviews. I believe these interviews really helped to convey the experience in a way that made the subject matter more relatable to the average viewer. Some, like myself, had traveled from Philly to Casper, WY where the chances of clear weather were better than places further east like Nashville, or South Carolina. Casper, WY was also hosting the Astrocon convention where many of the world’s eclipse experts were gathering.

Fred Espenak, aka “Mr. Eclipse” was at Astrocon, and I was lucky enough to run into him in the parking lot during the convention. He agreed to do an on-the-fly interview. The shooting conditions at the convention were difficult, but I managed to get some usable footage after filtering his audio through a noise reduction feature in FCPX.

Another local connection was the interview I shot with Kelli Spangler who is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Montgomery County Community College. We shot her interview in a baking hot observatory dome, and I want to give her special thanks for enduring that ordeal.

It was also important to me that I take the opportunity to not only document the eclipse itself, but also address my concerns about the way in which our culture has become less grounded in rational, scientific thought. I wanted to draw attention to the need for our country to value science literacy and education, if we are to successfully address the challenges of climate change. My next documentary project will be about the Human Relationship to Nature and will more directly address the issue of climate change. In fact…

Please vote for Philadelphia documentary filmmaker, John N. Campbell to win a trip to Antartica! 

He will use this trip as an opportunity to shoot footage for his next documentary project,

“Human And Nature.” The documentary will examine the human relationship to nature and its impact on our ability to address climate change.

Totality: The Total Solar Eclipse Documentary is now available on Amazon. You can follow John N. Campbell’s other projects at Echo Media