Little, Big, and Far

A bewitchingly thought-provoking meditation on the stars, and on humanity’s place on Earth and within the universe. Newly septuagenarian astronomer Karl is in a reflective mood. His whole life has been space and jazz. But with his job at the museum under threat, his physicist wife, Eleanor, growing distant on the other side of the world and the future of his grandson’s planet uncertain, Karl finds himself at a crossroads. Following a conference in Greece, he heads for the islands in search of untarnished night sky, and to ground himself once more by reaching for the stars. Told primarily through extraordinary imagery and via Karl’s correspondences with Eleanor and grad student Sarah – played, respectively, by Cohen’s friends and fellow filmmakers Leslie Thornton and Jessica Sarah Rinland – Little, Big, and Far is a cinematic musing on the galaxy; humanity’s place within it; the marvels and dangers of the Anthropocene; and the past, present and future of all of it. In many ways a spiritual sequel to his narrative feature debut Museum Hours (MIFF 2013), Jem Cohen’s new docu-fiction hybrid expands on that work’s preoccupation with history, art and spectatorship, this time working across a global – and cosmic – canvas. The film’s seamless merging of fact and fiction is mirrored by Cohen’s blending of micro and macro viewpoints, drawing as much beauty from a car park at night as from the vast expanse of the celestial sphere. “Wondrous, expansive … Little, Big, and Far, in its fascination with stargazing, reflects the constant presence of the unknown in our lives as a reminder to seize solitude amid the bustle of everyday existence, to be quiet and still, to look up and consider the universe.” – RogerEbert.com