Award Winning Documentary Focusing on Revolutionary Princeton Mathematician Coming to Garden Theater

An award-winning documentary about a Princeton mathematician who used chaos theory to discover a radical, new way of space travel in the 1980s is coming to the Princeton Garden Theater.

The Princeton Garden Theatre will be showcasing feature documentary “Painting the Way to the Moon” as part of its curated series by local filmmakers on March 12, 7:30 p.m.

“Painting the Way to the Moon” is an hour-long film that focuses on Ed Belbruno and his revolutionary theory that was initially ridiculed.

Belbruno had his initial ‘eureka’ moment while painting the earth-moon system in the style of his favorite artist Vincent Van Gogh, and over several years built his theory around this first insight.

No one at Jet Propulsion Lab believed him, and he found himself marginalized until he was given the chance to prove his theory worked by using it to rescue a malfunctioning Japanese satellite called Hiten.

The movie has won three best documentary awards at film festivals, most recently at Boston’s 40th Sci-Fi Film Festival.

It features interviews with Princeton’s Chair of Astrophysics, David Spergel; Princeton professor J. Richard Gott III; former SETI coordinator at the Planetary Society Tom R. McDonough; and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, among others.

It also features space inspired dance choreographed by Mary Pat Robertson, Director of the Princeton Ballet School, and two dozen Princeton dance students.

The film was made by three local filmmakers as a “passion project.”

Jacob Akira Okada, of First Encounter Films, produced and directed the movie. Adam Morrow, of Eyespot Pictures, and Carylanna Taylor, of First Encounter Films, are the producers.

They raised money to make the movie by running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

A Q&A with Belbruno and the filmmakers follows the screening.

“Painting the Way to the Moon” is “a good example of the ways that art and science intertwine in Belbruno’s life – a life that is both unexpected and sometimes unexplainable,” Calla Cofield said in her review of the film for Space.com. “Belbruno doesn’t shy away from telling strange stories from his life, like the time he says he saw an alien spaceship in the Wyoming desert. He also says that after taking hallucinogenic drugs when he was 18 (the only time he ever did so, he said), he became a whiz at mathematics, and found he could ace hour-long calculus exams in 20 minutes..

“Don’t tell Ed I said this, but I think he might be a little crazy,” Neil deGrasse Tyson tells the camera. “But maybe you need to be a little crazy to discover stuff that no one thought was there to notice.”

A trailer for the movie is attached to this post.

For more, visit www.paintingthewaytothemoon.com.

About First Encounter Films

Producer and Director Jacob Akira Okada’s first film, Curtis, premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it received an Honorable Mention in short filmmaking. Curtis played at many top festivals, such as AFI-Docs and Tribeca Film Festival. Jacob has worked as a producer, editor and cinematographer for award winning documentaries, such as New Year Baby, A Son’s Sacrifice, the Emmy nominated Off and Running, My Own Man, First Comes Love and more. He also freelances for Nat Geo Wild as a field producer and story producer, most recently producing a new series at Cornell University about its veterinary school. Jacob’s full list of credits can be found on imdb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1515732/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Carylanna Taylor (Producer) is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a PhD in anthropology with research and teaching experience in the U.S. and Latin America. “Painting the Way to the Moon” is her first documentary. She helped bring out the science/art connections in the film and coordinated pre- and post-production.

About Eyespot Pictures

Adam Morrow (Producer, Editor) has over a decade of experience as a film editor and artist specializing in visual effects. His effects work includes making prosthetic masks for the artist Phillip Toledano; leading the special effects team on the Lionsgate feature film MULBERRY STREET; and bloodying kung-fu fighters for a music video featuring The RZA. Adam’s clients include the Onion Network, the Cartoon Network, MTV, and more. You can see his work at www.eyespotpictures.com.

About the Princeton Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre opened its doors on September 20, 1920. Built originally to accommodate Princeton University’s Triangle Club, The Garden took on a new life as a movie theater when Triangle moved to McCarter Theatre in the late ‘20s.

In 2014, Renew Theaters took over management of the Princeton Garden Theatre, closing the facility for more than a month for major renovations, including new carpeting and paint, a new HVAC system and popcorn machine and other improvements. The theatre reopened just in time for the Fourth of July, now showing independent, foreign, and classic films for local movie lovers. They are committed to excellent programming and to meaningful community outreach.

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