Looking forward to “The End of Time”

Time stand still

I'm not looking back

But I want to look around me now

See more of the people

And the places that surround me now ...

 "Time Stand Still" - Lyrics by Neil Peart (Rush)

While browsing through the Sarasota Film Festival online film guide in search of a documentary film to preview for This Week In Sarasota, the film that most interested me was The End of Time, written and directed by Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler.

The SFF film guide describes The End of Time as: “Working at the limits of what can easily be expressed, filmmaker Peter Mettler tackles the elusive subject of time. Mettler takes us from the particle accelerator in Switzerland, where scientists seek to probe regions of time we cannot see, to lava flows in Hawaii that have overwhelmed almost all traces of human civilization, to the disintegration and modern ruins of inner city Detroit, to a Hindu funeral rite near the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment, all the while exploring our perception of what time means.”

The End of Time was included in the Toronto International Film Festival's list of Canada's Top Ten feature films of 2012 and has been nominated for a 2013 Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film, Best Film Score and Best Cinematography.

With SFF screenings at 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, April 7 and 12:15 p.m. on Monday, April 8, the online film guide categorizes The End of Time as “experimental, philosophical and technological.”

According to his press rep, Mettler is currently on a film shoot in the desert, working very long days and thus unavailable for interviews. That means no interview for me or anyone else in the local media.

With no access to the filmmaker and having only seen the film trailer, I turned to The End of Time press kit to shed additional light on this intriguing film and Mettler’s concept of time.

According to the press kit, the film draws from “science, philosophy, religion and the personal, while chronicling a journey into the nature of time and bearing witness to this perilous period in the history of the planet.”

The film begins at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) and the particle accelerator in Switzerland, where scientists probe regions of time not seen by the human eye,  smashing subatomic particles together at almost the speed of light in hopes of reproducing conditions similar to those that occurred instants after the Big Bang, trying to answer the question: “Is time real, or is it only a perception?”

When asked why he called the film The End of Time, Mettler told his interviewer, “It’s referring to the end of the idea of time, not to the end of the world. I think our species has never been more aware of our place in the big picture of time than now---but it also begs the question: What is time anyway?”

Describing his film, Mettler said, “Ultimately I suppose it’s a film about perception and awareness. It offers a challenge to see through our conceptual thinking. We use concepts like time to organize and understand our lives. We use our created languages to define our world, but these things can also end up controlling us and disconnecting us from the ‘real’ world, the ‘non-conceptual’ world, nature, or whatever else we might choose to call that which is beyond words.”According to the press kit, “The film first tunes the viewer into concepts of time, but then leaves the world of ideas and takes them through an experience of time, which is not unlike that of listening to music, with the intention to provoke a heightened awareness and associative thinking process.”

In conclusion, Mettler said, “Ultimately I hope the film inspires an awareness of presence and the realization of the impact of our actions on the future. Specifically, I wanted to explore what we mean when we think of time and how we experience it. It was important to me to get some perspective on the idea that time may not even exist.” 

I turn my back to the wind

To catch my breath

Before I start off again

Driven on without a moment to spend

To pass an evening

With a drink and a friend…

For Joe Hendricks---the musician, writer, husband and “father” of an older dog that he loves like a child---The End of Time is appealing in part because I feel like I’m always pressed for time, always up against a deadline and always in a rush to get to a band gig or a press event on time.

As a Michigan native, the mention of Detroit and the ongoing decay of this once great industrial Midwestern city also piqued my interest.

And as someone who is now past the age of 50, I know that my own time on this planet is limited, as is that of my friends and loved ones, which gives the concept of time even greater personal significance. At best, I might have 20 to 25 years left to live, and the odds are equally good that I have much less time than that. Like all of us, I could drop dead, be killed or be diagnosed with a fatal disease today, tomorrow or before I go see The End of Time Monday afternoon.

This realization of time running out works on me in two ways: On one hand, it helps me treasure the life I’m living and helps me find increased meaning in daily moments large and small, public, private and personal. On the other hand, the waning of my own time drives me to accomplish as much as I can and experience as much as I can before it runs out---hoping to leave something behind in the form of written words, recorded music and memories created.

Time is our most valuable personal resource; we should treasure whatever amount we are given and whatever amount we have left.

So, on that note, it’s time to end this story and go cook dinner before I head off to a band gig … see you at the film fest.

Summer's going fast, nights growing colder

Children growing up, old friends growing older

Freeze this moment a little bit longer

Make each sensation a little bit stronger

Experience slips away ... The innocence slips away

Time stand still …