The City Dark: SXSW 2011 Accepted Film

THE CITY DARK chronicles the disappearance of darkness. When filmmaker Ian Cheney moves to New York City and discovers skies almost completely devoid of stars, a simple question -- what do we lose, when we lost the night? -- spawns a journey to America's brightest and darkest corners. Astronomers, cancer researchers, ecologists and philosophers provide glimpses of what is lost in the glare of city lights; blending a humorous, searching tone with poetic footage of the night sky, what unravels is an introduction to the science of the dark, and an exploration of the human relationship to the stars.

Category:

Film & Animation

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[acousticjim82]

what is this music I'm hearing?

[Zsinjeh]

@pineapplepeanuts Yeah I, unfortunately, think we're in the minority. I'm doing my best to spread the news about this documentary, the least I can do.

Keep looking at the sky friend.

[pineapplepeanuts]

@Zsinjeh Indeed there is, but those people, I believe, are few.

[Zsinjeh]

@pineapplepeanuts I agree, but don't forget that for every time you are not looking at the sky, there is someone asking the same question, "why isn't everybody looking at the sky with me?"

[mountainserenity]

I live in rural Southern MiddleTennessee in the Cumberland Plateau and I can still see the stars at night. One of the joys of my life is to look at the sky: clouds during the day, the sun rise in the morning, glorious sunsets at dusk, and the stars at night. I marvel every day at all this beauty.

[Roces52]

is there any chance to see this in Europe?

[artilleryboy1]

Where i live all my neighbors have their lights on at night. I have a street lamp out the front of my house. I can see the lights from my park at night and rarely ever see the night sky and what it holds due to the light pollution. However i recently went to a developing country which did not have all of the lights like we do in developed nations and you can see pretty much all of the night sky and the stars. Its pretty sad how we miss out on seeing the night sky due to so much artificial light.

[jmar1371]

This is why most kids today think that the Milky Way is a candy bar. When my daughter was 7, I took her to a dark site to watch the Perseids. When she looked up at the sky she said "Awe Dad, there's clouds." I handed her the binoculars and told her to look again. She did, and exclaimed "They're stars!" One of my top ten moments with my daughter.

Ban light pollution.

[pineapplepeanuts]

@TheisticThinker You know, I don't think anybody would care. Every time I catch myself staring at the night sky, I'll see other people not even bothering to look up. It worries me...we're all trapped in our little bubbles that don't really mean shit.

[faenor]

I have to say while i can see its a real global issue, it is defiantly more so in the US, in britain its gets dark at night, even in london if your outside of zone 1 its dark enough to see stars. I dont think most country's could afford to use lighting like the states do, its light enough to write a book in the streets there!