Greetings,

You’re reading a blog that focuses on the making and the makers of  A Life’s Work, a documentary about people engaged with projects or research they may not see completed in their lifetime, projects that could have a profound, positive global impact.

The subjects of the film are:

Dr. Jill Cornell Tarter, Director, Center for SETI Research, SETI Institute. Dr. Tarter has been scientifically searching  for extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1970s. She was the basis for the Elie Arroway character in Carl Sagan’s science fiction novel, Contact, played by Jodie Foster in the Robert Zemeckis film.

Jill Tarter and undergrad students at the Hat Creek processing room
Jill Tarter with students, Hat Creek, CA.

Robert Darden, a journalism professor at Baylor University who heads the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, an organization that is trying to identify, acquire, preserve, record, and catalog the most at-risk music from the golden age (roughly 1935-1980) of black gospel music.

Robert Darden in Hyde Park Records, Chicago, IL
Robert Darden in Hyde Park Records, Chicago.

Paolo Soleri, architect and guiding force behind Arcosanti, an “urban laboratory” in the middle of the Arizona desert. He has been involved in the construction of Arcosanti since the early 1970s. The makers of A Life’s Work were fortunate enough to conduct three extensive interviews with Soleri (in 2006 and 2012) before he passed away in 2013. Jeff Stein, A.I.A., his one-time mentee and now one of the people responsible for keeping Arcosanti going post-Soleri, has been interviewed before and after Soleri’s death.

Paolo Soleri and David Tollas at Acrosanti, Cordes Junction, AZ

The Milarchs, father and son tree farmers and co-founders of the Champion Tree Project (now known as Archangel Ancient Tree Archive), who clone old-growth trees for long-term reforestation projects.

David and Jared Milarch
David and Jared Milarch in Copemish, MI.

Questions? Email me at d a v i d p l i c a t a ( aT } G m a I L {d o t] c o m