04/26/2019
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
Lincoln Theater
2 Theater Street
Event Type
Long before satellites would journey to planets and deep-space telescopes would photograph distant galaxies, there was an artist whose dazzling visions of planets and stars would capture the imagination of all who beheld them. Before that, he was an architect working on projects like the Chrysler Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. He would later become a matte painter in Hollywood working on films like Citizen Kane and Destination Moon. Who was this remarkable man? His name was Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986).
Chesley Bonestell’s mesmerizing depiction of “Saturn As Seen From Titan” became known as “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” Told by the many people who were influenced by Chesley Bonestell or knew him personally and punctuated with rare interview footage of the artist himself, the documentary compellingly chronicles the life of a quiet, artistic visionary, whose architecture and space art continue to inspire us to reach for the stars.
“There isn’t an artist that’s painting today in the science fiction fantasy field who didn’t start with Chesley Bonestell,” says legendary science fiction author Ray Bradbury in the first film ever made about the man dubbed “The Father of Space Art.”
Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future was named Best Documentary at the 2019 Boston Science Fiction Film Festival and at the 2018 Comic-Con Film Festival in San Diego. The film screened at the prestigious Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC on April 2nd as part of this year’s 50th Anniversary Apollo Program festivities.