Little, Big, and Far

Jem Cohen · 2024 · 121 minutes
May 14 · Regal Riviera · 7:00 p.m.

“Jem Cohen’s wondrous, expansive Little, Big, and Far…. 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

“Magical. Captures all the glories of the universe.” — Screen Anarchy

Austrian astronomer Karl (Franz Schwartz) is at a crossroads in his life and work. At 70, he finds himself growing increasingly distant from his wife and increasingly distracted by thoughts of climate disaster, rising fascism, and what the future might hold for his young grandson. After attending a conference in Greece, Karl decides to not return home and instead heads for a small island in hopes of finding a dark enough sky to reconnect with the stars. Abandoned at a remote mountain trail, he ascends and waits for darkness to fall.

Programmer’s Note

Over the course of four decades and nearly 70 films of various lengths and shapes, Jem Cohen has established himself as one of America’s finest independent film artists. In Cohen’s case, “independent” is more than a marketing term. A product of the Washington, DC punk scene, he documented the lives and performances of the band Fugazi — Instrument (1999) features several memorable scenes at a Fugazi show in Knoxville — before making early videos and short films with R.E.M., Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Terry Riley, Elliott Smith, and others. (Cohen returned to Knoxville in 2017 for Big Ears, where he collaborated with an all-star cast of musicians for two live performances and was featured in a small retrospective.)

The same ethos of political engagement and independence that defined Fugazi has shaped Cohen’s career as well. He has described Little, Big, and Far as a companion piece to Museum Hours (2012), a lovely and moving narrative feature about two strangers in late middle-age who develop an unexpected friendship. Shot in and around Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, Museum Hours treats the Kunsthistorisches with curiosity, reverence, and awe, like a secular cathedral, and the same could be said in Little, Big, and Far of his approach to astronomy, scientific enquiry, free jazz, and the infinite span of the universe. It’s a balm of a movie for turbulent times. — Darren Hughes

Special thanks to Jem Cohen, Ryan Krivoshey, and Grasshopper Films for making this screening possible.