Film premiere: Dancing with Atoms: Paul Callaghan

Tickets $25/$15 for children 16 and under and students with ID available from eventbrite.co.nz

All proceeds to the Cancer Society of NZ.

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DANCING WITH ATOMS PROMO from Shirley Horrocks on Vimeo.

In November 2008, Sir Paul Callaghan awoke to find himself in hospital after radical bowel surgery. Thus began a different trajectory in the life of one of New Zealand’s most exceptional scientists and public figures.

In the time left, he redoubled his efforts to communicate his campaign to make New Zealand ‘A place where talent wants to live’ and issued a last challenge to New Zealanders to make the mainland predator-free.

Film-maker Shirley Horrocks, one of New Zealand’s leading documentary makers, has documented the lives of many artists including Marti Friedlander and Len Lye. In this film, she discovers the world of atoms and molecules that so entranced Sir Paul. He used nuclear magnetic resonance as a choreographer directs the dance. This film is a beautifully composed mosaic of memories by his brother Jim, colleagues, students and friends who were close to him, recording Sir Paul’s unique personality and vision.

This film has been funded by the MacDiarmid Institute (which Sir Paul founded in 2002), AUT, Callaghan Innovation, Kiwibank, Massey University, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Royal Society Te Apārangi, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, University of Otago, University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington.