Ballroom Marfa presented a free screening of Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light at the McDonald Observatory. The film was complemented by free entry to the evening’s Star Party and a chance to learn more about the McDonald Observatory’s participation in the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Nostalgia for the Light documents the landscape of the Atacama Desert through the lens of Chilean political history and astrophysics. Despite the vast distance, the Atacama is directly connected to our West Texas Chihuahuan Desert via the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope. 

At 10,000 feet above sea level between the Chilean coast and the Andes Mountain Range, the Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on earth with some of the darkest and clearest skies. These conditions, in part shared by the Chihuahuan Desert, attract astronomers from all over the world. Guzmán’s film, set in the Atacama, simultaneously documents astronomers’ quest for distant galaxies and a group of womens’ poignant search for the remains of their relatives disappeared during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship.

The screening was paired with an opportunity to learn more about the Giant Magellan Telescope and the complementary science being performed at the Observatory that will impact the deepest levels of discovery science in astronomy.

This event was free and open to the public.