08-03-2025
Life beyond the cosmos? WVU holds screening of ‘Small Town Universe' documentary
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — The West Virginia Alliance for STEM and the Arts hosted a screening of Small Town Universe at WVU Friday night as part of its new STEAM Stories series.
Small Town Universe delves into themes of love, loss, resilience, hope, scientific discovery and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, all set in Green Bank, home to the renowned large telescope within the radio quiet zone.
Prior to the screening, 12 News spoke with Marshall University Master's Student and Physics Graduate Assistant Ellie White on if she believes there's life beyond our universe.
'I don't know the answer and I'm trying to find out and a lot of my colleagues are trying to find out and we're really excited to see what's coming next in the next few years, what we might find. We're searching harder than ever, which means we have better chances than ever finding something and so I'm just delighted to be a part of that,' White said.
This exclusive screening, co-sponsored by the West Virginia University Departments of Physics and Astronomy, English and the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, was free and open to the public.
Directed by Emmy-nominated Katie Dellamaggiore, the film premiered at the 2024 Cleveland International Film Festival at the Mimi Theater, where it won the Global Health Award. That day was also when the total solar eclipse happened in 2024, which Dellamaggiore described as 'perfect.'
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'I knew nothing about radio astronomy at all. I knew that was astronomy before making this film,' Dellamaggiore said. 'I learned how radio astronomy works, why it matters what we're looking for, what we know, what we don't know, and that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is actually like a legitimate field of science. That was something I wasn't fully aware before.'
After the screening, attendees delved into a discussion on community, compassion and our place in the universe. Dellamaggiore joined a panel of local scientists, scholars and experts to take the conversation beyond the cosmos.
'The really cool thing about like seeing a film in person with people like this as opposed to just watching it at home on your TV is that like you get to talk about it afterwards. And so, for me like I know the process of being creative doesn't stop like when I finish the film it's like it continues by actually sharing it with people and seeing their reactions and having conversations and so like this is as much my favorite part of the process as making a film,' Dellamaggiore said.
The film will have screenings at more locations across the Mountain State over the next several months. Dellamaggiore hopes to have the film seen nationwide at science centers and planetariums.
'The importance of a facility like Green Bank is just, it would take me an hour to list all the reasons why that's important but you know kind of sums up to a couple different areas you have education, engineering, science, and the economy,' White said.
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