On Thursday the 27th of September, YRE International has set up an exclusive online interview with Noel Dockstader and Quinn Kanaly - the filmmakers of the fascinating documentary POINT OF NO RETURN which follows the first solar-powered flight around the world. YRE students, alumni and national operators have been invited to participate in the interview, with the chance of speaking directly with two highly inspiring and professional filmmakers.
The online interview will consist of two parts:
A screening of selected scenes from POINT OF NO RETURN (30 minutes)
Interview with the filmmakers (30 minutes)
After the interview, the participating students are expected to write a short article sharing the knowledge they gained. The best articles will be shared on the YRE Exposure page.
SYNOPSIS POINT OF NO RETURN chronicles one of the most suspenseful and pioneering scientific adventure stories of the 21st century, following two pilots in their attempt to circumnavigate the globe in an airplane fueled exclusively by sunlight. Their mission: to prove the potential of clean technology and to inspire hearts and minds. To achieve their goal, they must push themselves and their team of engineers and meteorologists far beyond their limits.
Thirteen years ago, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschbergbegan building what many experts said was impossible: a solar-powered airplane capable of flying day and night. With the wingspan of a 747 jet and the weight of a car, Solar Impulse is extremely fragile; high winds or turbulence can snap the wings in two. But the 26,000-mile journey tests more than their technology. In an unheated, unpressurized cockpit, the 5-day solo flight across the Pacific Ocean becomes a feat of endurance unlike any other in aviation history.
Technical failures, unplanned landings, and stormy weather put the entire mission in jeopardy and drain the spirits of the team. To succeed, both Piccard, a psychiatrist and balloonist, and Borschberg, an engineer and jet fighter pilot, must set aside their differences, and go against the advice of their engineers. POINT OF NO RETURN explores what it takes to do something truly groundbreaking, and how their journey captivated people around the world who came out to see the plane land in their cities, and watched live from their computers at home. It’s a story of hope, courage, and perseverance that gets to the heart of what it will take to solve the biggest environmental threat humans have ever faced.
Photos and quotes from: http://pointofnoreturndoc.com/
DIRECTORS BIO
Creative partners for over a decade, filmmakers Noel Dockstader and Quinn Kanaly tell thought-provoking, impactful stories about science, history and exploration. When they learned of Solar Impulse’s audacious zero-fuel flight, they knew it had the potential to be one of the most important pioneering adventures of our time—and they felt compelled to capture it. Over ten months, Noel and Quinn found themselves on opposite sides of the world, tracking the unfolding drama both on the tarmac and at mission control—connected only by their cell phones and a shared vision for the film, Point of No Return.
Prior to embarking on Point of No Return, Dockstader and Kanaly’s collaborative works at Far Wes Film (San Francisco, CA) have been broadcast in the US and internationally on National Geographic, Discovery, Smithsonian, and PBS. Previous films include Extreme Ice for PBS/NOVA, following photographer James Balog as he photographed melting glaciers and ice sheets around the world, and Collapse, a two-hour special for National Geographic about environmental impacts on the collapse of civilizations, based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Jared Diamond.
For more information about the film, visit the website of POINT OF NO RETURN.