Where were you on April 8, 2024, when millions gathered beneath the moon’s shadow and, for a few extraordinary moments, looked beyond their differences?

For decades, Harvard astrophysicist Donald Menzel traveled the globe chasing total solar eclipses, determined to unlock the secrets of the sun. Half a century after his passing, his granddaughter, filmmaker Kate Davis, has explored in a brilliant new documentary, Totality, something he understood instinctively — the profound power of witnessing a total solar eclipse. Where Menzel sought to understand the sun, Davis has turned her attention to the people standing in its shadow, capturing what happens when millions experience the same wave of collective awe.

Directed by the Oscar-nominated filmmaking team of Davis and her husband David Heilbroner, Totality made its U.S. premiere on November 19 as the prestigious Closing Night Film at DOC NYC. The 84-minute documentary previously secured the Audience Award at Montréal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.

A Family Legacy Of Chasing Total Solar Eclipses

One of the documentary's opening sequences features archival footage of Menzel counting down to totality in Egypt, surrounded by fellow astronomers and spectators. Decades later, his granddaughter stood among roughly 50,000 people at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, witnessing the exact same celestial spectacle. Despite the massive crowds, elaborate celebrations, and surrounding cameras, Davis found herself moved to tears.

Menzel (1901–1976), a former director of the Harvard College Observatory, ranked among the premier solar astronomers of the 20th century. He observed 15 total solar eclipses and pioneered research into the solar corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere visible to the naked eye during the fleeting moments of totality. “He took us to Costa Rica in the ‘70s,” Davis recounted in an interview, recalling joining her grandfather as a teenager. She remembered his booming voice during the countdowns, though she initially struggled to grasp his enthusiasm. “I didn’t really get it,” she admitted.

Decades afterward, producing Totality helped her appreciate his lifelong obsession. “It does feel like it was sort of a meant-to-be project,” she noted. “I’m closer to understanding where his excitement came from.”

Why A Total Solar Eclipse Brings People Together

Davis and Heilbroner set out to examine the eclipse phenomenon across diverse cultures, communities, and generations, following astronomers, artists, farmers, ministers, and families as they prepared for April 8, 2024.

“We call it sort of a mosaic of humanity that we tried to bring to life visually,” Davis explained. At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tens of thousands gathered for a celebration featuring astronauts and racing figures. In Vincennes, Indiana, smaller groups assembled with far less fanfare, while in Mazatlán, Mexico, local children were prepared for the event through dedicated astronomy education. Further north, the path crossed Rochester, Quebec, and finally Newfoundland, unfolding against a striking coastal landscape.

Despite these contrasting backdrops, the filmmakers observed strikingly similar emotional reactions. “The collective awe that was experienced, which we try to depict in the film, is evidence that we as a civilization might find common ground,” Davis stated.

Heilbroner was particularly struck by the atmosphere among strangers sharing the viewing experience. “Everyone’s just cheering and smiling or crying and hugging,” he remarked. “It’s free. It has no political baggage. It has no religious dogma.” Unlike traditional sporting events, a total solar eclipse features no winners or losers, while the moon's shadow traverses international borders effortlessly.

How 21 Film Crews Captured The 2024 Eclipse

Capturing such a vast portrait of North America demanded an ambitious production, deploying 21 separate crews along the roughly 115-mile-wide path of totality as the lunar shadow swept from Mexico through the United States and into southeastern Canada. Davis and Heilbroner issued precise guidelines regarding camera gear, lenses, and framing to maintain a unified cinematic vision.

The production also incorporated roughly 1,500 crowdsourced submissions, utilizing several dozen in the final cut. However, their primary instruction to the crews concerned humanity rather than astronomy. “Don’t worry about filming the eclipse event itself,” Heilbroner recalled telling them. “Film people’s reactions. Focus on the human.” Davis went a step further, encouraging cinematographers to briefly halt their work during totality and experience the moment themselves. “Just stop and just look up,” she told them, insisting that even the crew recording the spectacle deserved to witness it firsthand.

The ultimate variable was the weather, with forecasts predicting heavy clouds that threatened to obscure the path and undermine over a year of planning. Heilbroner positioned himself in Uvalde, Texas, where the local community hoped the eclipse might bring positive attention following a devastating 2022 school shooting. While certain regions faced challenging conditions, others enjoyed perfectly clear skies. Rather than building suspense around cloud cover, the filmmakers focused entirely on the raw emotional reactions of those experiencing the sudden darkness. The approach works seamlessly, leaving viewers unaware of whether individual communities secured clear views. For the film's core message, that detail remains irrelevant. “It was meant as a love poem to Mother Nature, to things grander than us, and to humanity,” Heilbroner said.

One Eclipse, Two Works Of Art

Among the film's most touching segments is the story of astrophotographer Ian Lauer and his wife, artist Cathrin Machin, who approached the event with distinct goals. Lauer aimed to capture the definitive eclipse photograph, while Machin planned to paint the fleeting phenomenon. Their emotional reactions during totality elevate the sequence.

Heilbroner expressed surprise at Lauer’s visceral reaction, given his professional background. “Here’s Ian, who has seen eclipses, who spends his life gazing at the cosmos,” he noted, yet during totality, he was “just like a five-year-old jumping up and down with joy.” Meanwhile, Machin grew visibly emotional while painting, culminating in a warm embrace between the couple.

For Machin, the canvas evolved into something more profound than a standard artistic exercise. “I preserved the painting as it was, because it’s a record of the experience, and I didn’t want to paint over anything,” she noted. Though she has since produced other eclipse-inspired pieces, the original remains untouched.

Lauer made a similarly deliberate choice regarding his photograph, withholding it from the public until the documentary's release. “I’ve held onto the photograph,” he said. “I haven’t shared it anywhere. I wanted the first public reveal to be in the film.”

Another unexpected storyline features Canadian inventors attempting to photograph the moon’s shadow from the stratosphere using a balloon-borne camera system. Their experiment offers a unique perspective, capturing the massive shadow racing across the curvature of the Earth rather than the traditional view of the darkened sun.

Totality debuted at DOC NYC with a post-screening Q&A featuring Davis, Heilbroner, and participant Mathieu Batiste. Summarizing the core takeaway, Heilbroner emphasized the importance of looking outward: to “get out of your head, get out of yourself, pay attention to the grander scheme of things.” It is a sentiment Donald Menzel would have deeply appreciated.