Marvin Hawkins in The Believers: “I will defend them at every turn”

137 Films’ The Believers played a packed house at the Cinequest International Film Festival last Friday night in San Jose, California. It was Cold Fusion Now’s third viewing.

Eli Elliott attended the film’s premier in the Chicago Film Festival and his video review is here. I caught screenings at the Studio City Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California.

The film attempts to “show the way science is done in America”, using one of the most pathological sagas in science history. Directors Monica Long-Ross and Clayton Brown had a tough task using as example the content of cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), lattice-assisted nuclear reactions (LANR), and quantum fusion.

The movie portrays the consequences of Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons‘ announcement of their discovery of fusion-sized energy from a table-top electrolytic cell. Initial excitement lasted a matter of weeks. When elite American scientists failed to reproduce the effect, accusations of delusion, and even fraud, circulated widely.

The new, clean energy claim that defied conventional theory dropped into the TV/satellite environment, bypassing the mainstream print hierarchy, and the warring domains retrieved Greek tragedy, which the filmmakers realize with a sad, pessimistic tone throughout the movie.

21rst century sacrifice

In the ancient Mediterranean, tragedy brought the villages together through the social ritual of theater. The tragedy of cold fusion was set in the global theater just as digital technology brought the world together with fax machines and 24-7 instant news coverage.

Greek tragedies were traditionally performed in late-March and early-April, with the original ancient spectacles only lasting three days, while the tragedy of cold fusion continues nearly a quarter-of-a-century later.

satyrOrigins of Greek tragedy are uncertain. However the word τραγῳδία meant “song for the sacrificed goat”.

In the case of cold fusion, two men who dared challenge the scientific doctrine of their time were sacrificed for the status quo of political and financial favor.

Death threats were made, children taunted, and normally decent scientists threw tantrums, acting like bullies. Careers were destroyed. Anyone able to reproduce the experiments was shunned from mainstream science. Stanley Pons opted out of the field long ago, giving up his citizenship to the U.S. when he left the country, and Martin Fleischmann, who continued to pursue research throughout the rest of his career, has now crossed-over. (Read the Infinite Energy obituary here.)

The movie tells the story of this sacrifice through the recollections of those that lived it, from both sides of the amphitheater.

Characters in a Marathon battle

Edmund Storms provides an articulate Chorus. A former Los Alamos National Lab nuclear chemist who measured tritium from his early Fleischmann-Pons experiments, proving a nuclear origin of the reaction, Storms describes a chronology of events with a reasoned, matter-of-factness.

Edmund Storms The Believers Still 3He has seen the reaction take place time and time again since 1989, and put experimental skills to documenting the anomalous effects. Now with a new description of the nuclear active environment (NAE), Storms focuses on science, not drama.

The narrative is grounded with his chronicle.

But Robert Park, the former Director of Public Information for the American Physical Society (APS), draws himself as the villain.

At the APS meeting on May 1, 1989, a program was choreographed by physicists with competing interests, as noted in the film by science historian Thomas Gieryn. That session ended in an absurd vote on whether or not cold fusion was dead – by show of hands. The vote was led by Steven Jones then of Brigham Young University, who was working on another form of unusual muon catalyzed fusion already dubbed ‘cold fusion’. That meeting defined the status of research for the next 24 years: untouchable.

In the film, Robert Park refers to scientists who pursue this research as “a cult of believers”, from which the movie’s title derives. But Park really speaks about himself.

He believes that nuclear reactions only happen in high-energy plasmas, like the Sun. Park points to the lack of radiation and neutrons from cold fusion experiments (which normally occur in hot fusion reactions) revealing his allegiance to the standard model of nuclear reaction created a century ago.

Robert Park refuses to look at any contrary research data because of his belief.

Empirical facts show otherwise.

A cold fusion energy cell is small, and safe, using as fuel the hydrogen from water.
A cold fusion energy cell is small, using as fuel the hydrogen from water.

Excess heat experiments have been confirmed again and again by first-class labs around the world, and anomalous effects now include low-energy nuclear transmutations (LENT).

Even as researchers try to form a theory to model this elusive reaction, there are an increasing number of commercially-minded participants entering the field.

But The Believers does not portray this success. The documentary is tightly focused on the back-and-forth battle between the reality of empirical data and the dogma of conventional theory.

When Robert Park criticizes Fleischmann and Pons saying “this was not their field”, and claims that Martin Fleischmann‘s career was based “on one experiment and not much else”, Michael McKubre rightly describes Fleischmann’s unique skills and achievements that put him at the top of his field in the world.

But not every punch was countered.

Irving Dardik, portrayed madly amidst piles of paper and books, has his Superwave concept in “quotations” during lower-third text, making it appear speculative, without mentioning it was Dardik’s “Superwaves” that brought Energetics Technologies cells to 25x excess energy return, attracting the interest of Michael McKubre and the lab at SRI International.

The Believers Still 7 Martin FleischmannWhile making a disclaimer referencing Dardik’s earlier medical practice legal problems, the film fails to make clear that he successfully helped Fleischmann regain his health to the point where he was able to travel to Rome and accept the Minoru Toyoda Gold Medal Award from the International Society of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS)for his achievements.

In the film, one of the strongest validations of Fleischmann and Pons’ accomplishment comes from Marvin Hawkins, the then-graduate student who ran the lab of Stanley Pons at the University of Utah during all the hoopla. His determined endorsement for the scientists he worked with, intellectually and emotionally, was rational, and powerful.

“What we did was correct…” he states.
“I will defend them at every turn.”

James Martinez of Cold Fusion Radio is perhaps the most enthusiastic voice in the movie. He opens the first scenes (and the trailer) conveying an urgency for change: “Cold fusion is the key to liberating the human race.” Filmed while speaking with Edmund Storms live on the radio, you can download that interview here.

High-school student Eric Golab provides the only real hope for the future, as an honest inquiry from youth furnishes what’s sorely missing from mainstream science.

Directors-The-BelieversBetween two worlds

The filmmakers repeatedly make the point they aren’t “trying to show whether cold fusion is real or not”. The content of the film is not the science of cold fusion. A viewer who knows nothing of cold fusion before viewing the film, will most likely know little about cold fusion afterwards, save there was a lot of ruckus.

Through archival film and the words of original participants going at it cabeza-y-cabeza, we re-live the painful drama of a major discovery suppressed, and its discoverers crushed.

The abysmal emotional bottom of the film overwhelms any logical argument on whether or not the phenomenon is real.

Indecision didn’t turn out well for ancient tragedians. However, it was a conscious choice to give pseudo-skeptic and former-Information Officer Robert Park as much weight as long-time laboratory scientists Edmund Storms and Michael McKubre. In some way, this choice validates Park’s negligent ignorance, of which he is apparently proud. The filmmakers decline to say why they respect his position on the matter.

There is no one book, or movie, that can communicate the simultaneous eruption of interest, excitement, fear, and loathing in 1989; it is difficult to capture this story in its fullest (though Eugene Mallove‘s Fire From Ice comes closest).

But Greek tragedies were often in threes, with a final fourth act of comedy, and The Believers begs for a sequel, or two, or … While this first installment will solicit sympathy for the actors in the drama, further episodes are needed to illuminate.

Here’s an audio recording of the directors answering questions from the audience after the San Jose screening.

Cold fusion now and then

The screening at Studio City Film Festival in Los Angeles, California, was in an actor’s studio and performance space. The intimate setting featured small tables and chairs for the patrons.

I introduced myself to the Festival organizers as a representative from one of the pro-cold fusion groups in the film, and that I was a colleague of James Martinez. I gave them t-shirts with Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons‘ stencil-style images, and they let me put some t-shirts, calendars, and stickers on my table, which drew a few excellent conversation, though sadly only a handful of folks showed up for the movie.

Unfortunately, I was unable to represent Cold Fusion Now in San Jose.

After the show, dragging a giant green recycle Co-op “We’re stronger together” bag stuffed with goodies, I felt orphaned like the little match girl.

Most of the audience left right after the film, while I stayed to record the Q&A with the directors. By the time I got out of the theater, only a small crowd remained in the small second-floor lobby area.

I went around, “Hi, would you like a free Cold Fusion Now sticker?”

“No” was the answer I got more often than not.

Huh?

I did get a chance to say hi to new pals Bob Ellefson and his wife Yvonne who both attended the show in support of this science. They were pretty much the only cold fusion-friendly faces in the leftover crowd that I saw.

Oracle at Delphi
Oracle at Delphi
Save us Goddess of the Machine

In the earliest form of Greek tragedy, the protagonist is often miraculously rescued at the end by deus ex machina, or ‘god by machine’, referring to the sudden appearance of a god or goddess swooping down on-stage in a crane-like contraption to save the day.

The Believers concludes with a finale of woe.

Park’s last arrows include a shallow disclosure that he doesn’t care whether or not the deluded believers continue their research. “It may not be good science, but it’s science.”

Then, in a kind of opposite-deus ex machina, MIT theorist Peter Hagelstein, who had barely shown up in the movie thus far, is in full-screen close-up, offering a dark vision of defeat, where future historians pick through the early rubble of failure only to see that some good had been done.

It is true that without the support of mainstream science, whose financial and intellectual resources have been entirely absent in this field for twenty-four years, only a lucky breakthrough seems able to shake the torpor. People do not yet realize the extent to which we’ve been robbed of a peaceful, clean-energy lifestyle.

“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis of such emotions. . .”
Aristotle Poetics 350BC translated by S. H. Butcher

The Believers is Act 1, displaying fully the pity and fear generated by a profound discovery.

This story won’t be complete until catharsis, and Act 2, in which a multitude of Heroes realize their Nature, and save a world of species from sacrifice.

Screen Daily reviews “The Believers”

UPDATE October 20 The Believers wins Hugo Gold award for Best Documentary at Chicago Film Festival. [Movie City News]

The first premiere of “The Believers“, a new cold fusion documentary produced by 137 Films occurred last night at the Chicago Film Festival.

From their F-book page, we have a photo of Directors Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross on the red carpet.

At the time of this writing, the only review post-screening is by Lisa Nesselson from Screen Daily, who noted Cold Fusion Radio’s James Martinez‘ participation:

The doc begins with James Martinez, a California DJ who broadcasts on internet-based Cold Fusion Now Radio. While enthusiastic, he has nothing of the bug-eyed loony about him when making pronouncements such as “This is the key to liberating the human race.”

The review continued fairly neutral, noting “The filmmakers leave viewers to draw their own conclusions, but there’s much here to pique the interest of any layman.”

Containing quotes by Martin and Sheila Fleischmann, Ms. Nesselson concludes with:

Either there’s some delicate variable or the chemists were mistaken. A man who was a grad student in Fleischmann and Pons’ department at the time says “I will defend them at every turn. What we did was real.”

Read the full review at http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/the-believers/5047850.article?blocktitle=Latest-Reviews&contentID=1479

The next screening of The Believers is this Saturday afternoon October 20. The directors will again be on-hand for a Q&A post screening.

Cold Fusion Now’s Eli Elliott will be in attendance on Saturday with free stickers and t-shirts for promotion, and to gauge the audience’s response.

“THE BELIEVERS” : Cold Fusion Documentary Premieres Oct. 16

The long awaited premiere of “The Believers“, the Cold Fusion documentary made by 137 Films, will premiere in Chicago, Illinois U.S. at the AMC RIVER EAST on October 16th at 8pm, and again on October 20th at 2pm, 137 Films announced today.

The film is part of the Chicago International Film Festival.

The AMC River East 21 is located:
322 E Illinois St, Chicago, Illinois 60611

More information about the premiere is at http://www.thebelieversmovie.com/.

A cold fusion energy cell is small, and safe, using as fuel the hydrogen from water.

We will have a Cold Fusion Now operative in the field to cover the event. The filmmakers will have a Q&A after the first screening on the 16th, and it appears they will be present for a Q&A at the second screening on the 20th as well.

This movie is very timely with the recent passing of Martin Fleischmann, who is featured in the film. Our own James Martinez is also featured throughout, as well as a number of Cold Fusion heavyweights.

A 200-word synopsis from 137 Films reads:

The Believers begins in March of 1989, when two respected scientists from the University of Utah stand in front of a wall of reporters; flashbulbs pop as the pair — one shy, the other cracking jokes— announce a startling claim: they can solve all the world’s energy problems using seawater, batteries, and the mysterious glass contraption they hold in their hands as they pose proudly for the US and international press. “Cold Fusion” is born. Within days, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann are on the cover of Time Magazine. But, only three short months later, their careers in tatters and their reputations ruined, they flee the country and cold fusion becomes synonymous with “bad science.” An embarrassed press, a confused public who have witnessed this highly unusual science fight, and the entire mainstream science community–knowing it violates the laws of physics–all assume that Cold Fusion is dead.

But there are those who refuse to accept that. More than twenty years after the infamous event, a band of professional and amateur scientists, a high school whiz kid and a Hollywood-based internet DJ are confident that Pons and Fleischmann were right after all and Cold Fusion will save the world. These are The Believers.

The Believers Cast and Crew

Featured:

Kevin Ashley
Karen Ashley
Irving Dardik
Rod Decker
Martin Fleischmann
Sheila Fleischmann
Pam Fogle
Ryan Freilino
Thomas Gieryn
Eric Golab
Rafal Golab
Marvin Hawkins
Peter Hagelstein
Michael Lubell
James Martinez
Michael McKubre
Robert Park
Chase Peterson
Edward Storms

Crew:

Directed and Produced by
Monica Long Ross and Clayton Brown
Edited by
Clayton Brown (with Monica Long Ross)
Assistant Editors
Stephen Poon
Amy Ellison
Associate Producers
Mia Capodilupo
Carole Snow
Assistant Producer
Stephen Poon
Cinematography
Stefani Foster
Clayton Brown
Music
Clayton Brown
Phil Wade
Betse Ellis
Development
Amy Ellison
Interns
Mikal Shapiro
Laura Kick
Hillary Bachelder
The Believers is copyright © 2012 by 137 Films, NFP

“The Believers” test screening February 11 in Chicago, Illinois

The Believers is a new documentary on cold fusion from 137 Films described as “a work in progress” and currently in Festival Submission.

137 FilmsThere will be a test screening in Chicago, Illinois on February 11 at 12 Noon local time at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

This is the announcement from their website:

137Films The BelieversIf you’ve been waiting to see our new film, The Believers, now is your chance!

The Chicago Council on Science and Technology is presenting a work-in-progress screening of The Believers on Saturday, February 11 at noon at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and filmmakers Monica Ross and Clayton Brown will be in attendance for a Q & A session after the film.

You can attend for free by becoming a 137 Films Backer. We hope to see you on February 11!”

James Martinez, who has interviewed a dozen scientists on the topic, was filmed for the movie last year during a Ca$h Flow interview with Dr. Edmund Storms who related the then-recent news on Andrea Rossi‘s 10 kilowatt E-Cat demonstration with the quote “There will be a stampede.

The film does not appear to be on the Gene Siskel Film Center calendar, but it is posted on the Chicago Council of Science and Technology front page.

There is an RSVP required and Registration at 11AM.
$15.00 non-members / $5.00 Students. Details here.

Related Links

Science and Storytelling – 10 Questions for the Upcoming Cold Fusion Documentary The Believers by Eli Elliott May 13, 2011

Cold Fusion Now Weekly Wrap + Updates

This week brought more action on the E-Cat front with promising news, and views, of a new test performed and insight into the one megawatt plant.

Our friends at Pure Energy Systems have a new write up published today which includes some posts by Andrea speaking about household units, finances, and future tests, one very important one in Uppsala . Check out their post here – “The Ultimate N-H Cold Fusion E-Cat Test”

“THE BELIEVERS” update:

Here’s an update from 137 Films on their upcoming documentary on Cold Fusion, called “The Believers”:

Update: 9/13/11

The Believers: Finishing Act III.  Cut to-date sent to POV for consideration for their upcoming 2012 season.  Assembling film festival calendar.  Partial screening at Northwestern University’s School of Engineering September 27.

Translation: They’re sending the as of edited version to the popular PBS based documentary series “POV” for a hopeful inclusion, which would be a huge deal for getting it seen thoughout the TV landscape. Though I’m guessing they are still leaving an editing gap open in Act III, for say, some end of October results. If anyone attends Northwestern and can go to the September 27th screening, let us know how it goes and what the discussion is like afterwards.

Finally, back to the E-Cat and the mystery partnership; while everyone has been talking the nostalgic giant NASA, have they been forgetting the current giant ruling the digital environment?  Here’s a bit about why Google could be the real partner – “Cheers and See You At Google Next Month”

Giuliano Bettini on the E-Cat facebook page adds to the above,

I add that the test early September with that customer, which has been much talk in here and said that they had done in the U.S. at NASA, were actually carried out in Bologna. Add that, from what I’ve been told, the test was successful: the American customer is satisfied and does not doubt that the E. Cat represents a new source of energy and not a scam, and I repeat is NOT a customer bamboozled in any way.
Mats Lewan has achieved its video after the test with the American customer had already been concluded (again positively)

All for now, stay well and add any updates/insights in the comments.

 

 

Science and Storytelling – 10 Questions for the Directors of the Upcoming Cold Fusion Documentary, “THE BELIEVERS”

THE BELIEVERS is the highly anticipated and very timely documentary on Cold Fusion, created by 137 Films, a non profit documentary production company whose mission is to “promote science literacy through storytelling”.

Of course the past dramas and ongoing sagas of Cold Fusion make for the perfect cinematic storytelling exploration. 137 Films tapped into a subject with a fascinating, controversial past, and a future which many believe, will completely change the world.

Since they began the project over 2 years ago, the excitement over Cold Fusion has rapidly grown, especially with the current Andrea Rossi E-Cat news. This makes “The Believers” a very important examination of how this technology arrived from the Pons and Fleischman of yesterday to this new found excitement of today, with all the arguments from supporters and detractors along the way.

If the massive increase in traffic and emails for the www.ColdFusionNow.org website is any indication, then the public’s hunger for wanting to learn more about Cold Fusion is present and rapidly rising. “The Believers” is landing in the right place at the right time. The filmmakers genuine desire, as seen in the interview below, for providing a balanced picture and creating a meaningful story, may make this one of the most relevant and fascinating films of the year.

I asked directors Clayton Brown and Monica Ross from 137 Films 10 questions on their upcoming documentary.

1. When is your new documentary on Cold Fusion, “The Believers”, going to be released? Any film festivals lined up?

We don’t have a release date yet. That depends on how it will be premiered and what deals we make (knock on wood). Our first film, The Atom Smashers, was acquired by the PBS show Independent Lens and we also secured home video, internet, and international distribution through a variety of different organizations. We’ve gotten more interest earlier with The Believers, so we hope we can make a similar deal for broadcast or (fingers crossed) a small theatrical release. We haven’t lined up festivals yet because we’re still working on it; we should start those plans later in the summer. Also depends on sales agents and other not particularly interesting behind-the-scenes machinations.

2. How long did it take to make the film?

We started work on The Believers in January, 2009, so it will take about 2.5 years by the time we’re done. The Atom Smashers took us four years, so we’re getting faster!

3. What inspired or excited you to take on this project? Did the surprising 2009 60 minutes episode on Cold Fusion set off a light bulb at all, perhaps prompting a realization that a feature film should be devoted to this?

We started work on the film before the 60 minutes episode was aired. We were drawn to it through some historical reading we had done. Our initial attraction (and much of what drives us today) was the complicated story of Pons and Fleischman in 1989. We didn’t anticipate when we began working on the film how much attention the pursuit of cold fusion would garner twenty years later. Our interest has always been, both as a company and as the directors of this film, the strange relationship America has with science. This involves the role that media, money, politics, and personal stories play in the pursuit of knowledge. This is a very complicated story with competing interests, opposing viewpoints and personal stakes, so it immediately appealed to us as filmmakers. The 60 Minutes broadcast convinced us that this was not just a historical story but, in fact, a very timely one, with a debate that still was very current.

4. What was the general reaction/response when you told people you were making a film on Cold Fusion?

Many people said “Cold Fusion? I thought that was a hoax/debunked/dead!” We also got a lot of eye-rolling from our physicists friends, although some of them expressed interest and surprise that there are still people pursuing it. Most people believe we are making a film promoting Cold Fusion, so we have to explain to them that our film is neutral, neither promoting nor discounting it, and is in fact a film more about science and the process of science — the collision of science, ideas, the media, greed, pop-culture, and solutions to complicated problems.

5. Was it difficult finding funding or investors (if that’s the route you took for financing) due to the controversial nature of Cold Fusion technology?

We have no investors, since documentaries don’t make a great deal of money. As well, documentaries must remain neutral so we don’t accept investors who might expect a certain story to be told. Funding is always a challenge, and as always we are continually writing grants. The controversial nature of Cold Fusion hasn’t really been an issue because we are not making a documentary that promotes cold fusion, but rather tells a fascinating story that takes place in the world of science. Our mission as a company is to raise science literacy through storytelling, and this film definitely falls within that mission because it raises some complex and compelling questions about science and scientists.

6. Who are a few of the key people interviewed in the film? Where did you travel to?

We have interviewed Martin Fleischmann, Mike McKubre, Ed Storms, George Miley, Robert Parks, George Lubell, Chase Peterson, two graduate students of Stan Pons, Mike Melich, Peter Hagelstein, James Martinez, Irving Dardik, Gary Taubes, and many others, both supporters and detractors of Cold Fusion. We’ve traveled to both coasts, Salt Lake City, the midwest, and to Rome, Italy. We’ve earned some travel miles!

7. How was investigating this topic different from your last film, The Atom Smashers?

The Atom Smashers was largely centered around Fermilab, located just 40 miles from us. We spend hundreds of hours at that facility with several physicists, becoming familiar with their work and their lives. It was a story that unfolded in real time and one which we had very little control over. The Believers has a key component that occurred in the past with quite a bit of historical and archival footage, which is different. As well, the science in The Atom Smashers was very esoteric and within the realm of mainstream science. The science of Cold Fusion, on the other hand, is immediately relevant, but debated by many people. However, both involve the intersection of science, media, and culture and have fascinating characters and high stakes, which we are drawn to.

8. Was filming completed before Andrea Rossi came out with his announcement of the E-Cat device, or did you get a chance to touch on the latest news of his invention due out later this year?

Filming is still not completed, so we are in the midst of trying to integrate that development into the film. It is helpful in that it answers the question many film distributors and broadcasters have: “why this story, and why now?”

9. I’m sure you knew going in the interesting possibilities and potential realities for Cold Fusion, upon completing the film did your feelings/viewpoint change? Did your excitement for the possibilities grow?

As filmmakers telling this story, we have remained neutral as best we can. As I mentioned earlier, our intention with this film is neither to promote nor debunk Cold Fusion. Our feelings about it haven’t changed, because we feel that it is a very important story with lots to say about America’s relationship with science. Anyone who hears about the obvious benefits of Cold Fusion is hopeful about what it would mean for the world. However, as filmmakers and documentary storytellers, our mission is to remain skeptical. So it might be more accurate to say that we knew about the excitement that many people had for cold fusion when we started, but we also knew the resolute certainty many others had about its impossibility. As filmmakers the collision of those two viewpoints interests us very much.

10. You also included James Martinez in the film who studies media and the effects technology has on society. Does The Believers go into this sometimes conflicting, oftentimes infuriating intersection of culture and technology; how this incredible energy discovery’s biggest opponent seems to have been the established cultural memes of media and science?

Yes, we explore that. Ed Storms describes mainstream science as having a certain orthodoxy that is governed in many ways by physicists. Historically, there has always been a rivalry between chemistry and physics. With the announcement of Cold Fusion in 1989, two electro-chemists claimed to have made an incredible discovery in the field of nuclear energy, the arena of physicists. Some people believe the physicists reacted with particular aggression to refute such a discovery because the chemists were playing in the physicists sandbox, to paraphrase one of the subjects in our film. However, physicists to this day strongly believe that what Pons and Fleischman claim was impossible according to the laws of nature. It is telling that most of the physicists we talk to, when they hear that people are still pursuing cold fusion, blink in surprise and say “why? We debunked that 20 years ago.” Needless to say they haven’t paid any attention to more recent developments. One difficulty with this type of research is that, unlike the work we explored in The Atom Smashers, which has no patents or secrecy involved, so it’s difficult to come to a conclusion about the validity of science in the absence of readily available documentation (one of the fundamental complications of the Pons and Fleischman story). However, mainstream science often denies the importance of mavericks who challenge orthodoxy, and that fascinates us too. History is full of them: some Cold Fusion believers point to Galileo as a genius who defied the currently established “laws of nature” with a greater truth. Yet some physicists point to the legion of so-called discoveries that have proven to be mistakes. So, in short, rather than finding that intersection you mention as infuriating, we in fact find it fascinating! We hope our film generates questions and discussions on all sides and gets skeptics and believers talking to each other.

– Clayton Brown and Monica Ross, co-directors of The Believers

Visit www.137films.org

Here’s the trailer for THE BELIEVERS

The Believers trailer from 137 Films on Vimeo.

Top