North American Premiere
How do we make sense of the world around us? How do tools shape our perception of nature? This search for understanding is immersed in an astounding array of human ingenuity and innovation, from Leibniz’s 17th century binary systems to the art of M.C. Escher; from the diverse boat-building techniques of First Nations peoples to the latest advances in quantum computing. Featuring a dazzling integration of artwork and experimental cinema – Picasso to Hilma af Klint to Stan Brakhage – interwoven with mathematicians and scientists striving to understand the innermost depths of the universe, we’re sent on a breathtaking journey through the known world.
The second feature from award-winning filmmaker and renowned physicist Mark Levinson (Particle Fever), The Universe in a Grain of Sand explores the synergistic intersection of art and science. Levinson maps out revolutions in analog and digital technology as they lead to increasingly complex artistic endeavours and stretch the boundaries of human perception, celebrating the transcendent power of the scientific imagination.
Sept 27 & Oct 1: Q&A with director Mark Levinson
Sept 29: Q&A with director Mark Levinson; artist Kristen Roos; and George Dyson
USA
2024
English
Flashing/strobing lights
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Andy Aaron, Mark Podlaseck
Producer
Mark A. Levinson
Screenwriter
Mark A. Levinson
Cinematography
Claudia Raschke, Howard Shack, Alan Jensen
ANIM
Ksawery Kirklewski
Editor
Mark A. Levinson, Melody London, Danya Abt, Michele Zarbafian
Original Music
Robert Miller
Mark A. Levinson
Mark A. Levinson is the director of the award-winning documentary Particle Fever (2013). Before embarking on a film career, Levinson earned a PhD in physics. In the film world, he first became a specialist in sound editing, working on over 40 feature films, including The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley. He is the director of The Bit Player (2018) and the fiction film Prisoner of Time (1993). Levinson won the inaugural Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.
Filmography: Prisoner of Time (1993); Particle Fever (2013); The Bit Player (2018)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
School of Rock
With not one, but two new Richard Linklater movies at VIFF this year (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon), we thought it would be fun to revisit a choice cut from his rich back catalogue: the best Black and White movie ever made, School of Rock.
Boyhood
A dozen years in the making, Richard Linklater's masterpiece chronicles the evolution of a boy into a young man, from six to 18. It is the ultimate coming-of-age movie, and one of the most audacious cinematic feats of the decade.
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.
Godland
In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest is dispatched to a far corner of Iceland where a devout farmer has seen fit to build a church. The physical journey is arduous. His spiritual journey, more taxing still.
The Balconettes
In this flamboyant black comedy set in Marseille during a heatwave, writer-director-star Noémie Merlant and her two besties have to cover up the unpleasant evidence of a disastrous night partying with the hunk across the way.