Film Features Two of Manchester's Brightest, 'The Artist & the Astronaut' Premieres
Todd, Pat and Bill Share a laugh at the Q & A.
MANCHESTER — “The Artist and the Astronaut” has its Vermont premiere Dec. 2 at Burr and Burton Academy.
After the screening, one of its subjects — artist Pat Musick — will be on-hand to answer questions, as will director Bill Muench and composer Todd Hobin.
The documentary chronicles the intersection of two lives: Musick and her late husband, astronaut Col. Jerry Carr, commander of the Skylab Orbital Workshop from Nov. 16, 1973 to Feb. 8, 1974. The film moves chronologically, using archival material and talking heads to capture these two disparate lives, their connection, and the ways in which they tapped into social currents sweeping the country over the decades.
Musick and Carr informally guide viewers into these issues. Take Pat Musick, who was first married to successful football coach Jack Musick. His time coaching at Cornell University indirectly led to Pat’s emergence from severe social anxiety (she adopted a strategy at parties of only asking questions. At one party, in response to something a Cornell professor said, she asked a question: What does “ubiquitous” mean?). When Jack Musick died at 52, Pat Musick suddenly became, as she says, “the breadwinner.” In short, her life encapsulated the shifting roles many women of her generation felt.
Meanwhile, Carr grew into adulthood hardened by military life. In the face of tragedy, which the film shows was a real risk for astronauts and those in training, Carr and others had an acceptable route to cope with loss: alcohol, until they were unable to drive home from bars (and their wives had to come and get them). Seeing Earth from the vantage point of the heavens, Carr found his outlook shifting. That new outlook found meaning in his wife’s art.
The film has its quiet heroes. Astronaut Alan Bean, who replaced C.C. Williams (who died in a training crash), transformed his lunar experience into lunar paintings. He hovers over the film as a kind of benevolent old uncle in painter’s overalls. Gene Kranz has the steely reserve we expect of astronauts and engineers, down to his bristle brush white hair. When discussing the deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee in a launchpad fire, decades later his eyes redden and well up, and his hand brusquely dismisses a tear.
The film came into being by an indirect route. Director Muench, who had long been fascinated with space travel, taught a class at Burr and Burton Academy called “Space and Time,” for which he had met and interviewed many astronauts. He was told he should meet Jerry Carr, and so 16 years ago, he went calling at his apartment in Equinox Village.
He was greeted by Pat, standing among many examples of outdoor art. Muench asked who made one particular piece.
“I did,” she replied.
What about this other one, he asked.
“I made all of them,” she said.
Muench became so intrigued that he was momentarily surprised when Carr appeared — the purpose for his visit in the first place.
“I went to see Jerry and fell in love with Pat,” Muench said later.
Years later, Pat Musick celebrated her 90th birthday with an installation near Bentonville, Ark., and Muench attended.
Before heading back to Vermont, Muench and his wife, Barb, went for a hike, and Muench said, “somebody should make a documentary about them.”
“You should do it,” his wife said.
Thinking back on that moment now, Muench said, “If you told me it would take six years, I would never have started it.”
Over those years, Muench raised money, traveled out of state for interviews, edited and performed a myriad of tasks to complete the film — all the while teaching a full schedule and coaching at Burr and Burton. And the project wrapped on Pat Musick’s 96th birthday, celebrated over a craft beer in Troy, N.Y. (near where she now lives).
Muench has plans for the film after its Vermont premiere. Included in those plans are a cinema release, an appearance on WNET (under negotiation), then, hopefully, PBS stations nationwide and Netflix in March.
