The Overview Effect: Freethink@Harvard

The world-premiere of the short documentary film "Overview," detailing the cognitive shift in awareness reported by astronauts during spaceflight, when viewing the Earth from space.

A perspective-changing event!

A panel discussion followed, with two NASA astronauts, Ronald J. Garan Jr. and Jeffrey A. Hoffman, discussing their experience with the filmmakers and with Douglas Trumbull (visual effects producer on films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"). The event was moderated by Harvard Extension School instructor Frank White, author of the book that first looked at this phenomenon in 1987, "The Overview Effect," http://www.amazon.com/The-Overview-Ef...

This event took place on the 40th anniversary of the "Blue Marble", one of the most famous pictures of Earth, which was taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on December 7, 1972.

Participants:

Rob Neugeboren, Dean of Students and Alumni Affairs, Harvard Division of Continuing Education
Frank White, Author, The Overview Effect, and Harvard Extension School instructor
Guy Reid, Director and co-producer, Overview
Jeffrey Hoffman, Shuttle astronaut and senior lecturer at MIT
Ronald Garan, ISS astronaut and founder of humanitarian organization Fragile Oasis
Douglas Trumbull, Visual effect producer on films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

The film Overview, (directed by Guy Reid, edited by Steve Kennedy and photographed by Christoph Ferstad), is the debut documentary film by Planetary Collective, a group of filmmakers, visual media creatives and thinkers who work with cosmologists, ecologists and philosophers to explore some of the big questions facing our planet at this time. To learn more about Planetary Collective, visit their website, http://www.planetarycollective.com

Watch the HD version of Overview at vimeo.com: http://vimeo.com/55073825