I’ll openly admit that science class was never my favourite growing up. So much of the content is theoretical, difficult to grasp, and can often only be conveyed by inadequate illustrations that leave the learner even more puzzled than before. I felt the same sense of cautious curiosity mixed with bemused bewilderment I once felt as a K-12 student as I watched the screener for Alan Goldman’s feature doc Bending Light.
The film follows scientific journalist Bob McDonald as he explores Canada’s part in a century-old experiment that helped to conclusively prove Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. In 1922, a multinational group of scientists including Toronto-based astronomer Clarence Chant, set out on an expedition to a remote part of Western Australia to photograph a solar eclipse and prove Einstein’s theory that large celestial bodies could in fact “bend” light via gravity before they reached the observer. It was a challenging task performed under difficult conditions (fine dust particles got everywhere), but the results captured via extended photographic exposures on glass plates ultimately proved what the eminent German scientist had theorised.
The second half of the doc deals with various follow-up experiments as a hypothesis generally requires multiple confirmations before conclusions are accepted by the larger scientific community. Here the film devolves into a series of excited talking heads who wax enthusiastically about mapping the larger universe via gravitational waves. The film attempts to aid their dense rhetoric with ample illustrative graphics, but this reviewer was still left more confused than enthused. Where’s Bill Nye when you need him?
I feel compelled to give the film deserved credit for its attempts to effectively illustrate the subject matter at hand. Enhanced colour slides, historical re-enactments, and graphical illustrations are used to great effect in the first half and helped keep even this sceptical viewer engaged. But the best illustration is of a non-graphical nature as about 10 minutes in, Australian scientist David Blair shows the viewer how curved space works with a sheet of fabric, a weighted sphere and toy cars. It’s a fun visual cue the film could’ve used more of.
Bending Light registers as a half-decent look at what keeps the astronomers up late at night and gazing skyward. It is less-successful at generating interest from the general public who may need things, for lack of a better term, “dumbed-down” to appreciate the bigger picture. Recommended for the stargazer in your life.
6/10
Bending Light is now available to view on the Super Channel