ABOUT THE FILM
SYNOPSIS
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, TOTALITY is an immersive feature documentary portrait of the 2024 total solar eclipse. With a blend of visual grandeur, science, and personal stories, the film asks why, in our polarized era, some 50 million people gather along the eclipse path — across Mexico, the United States and Canada — to experience this cosmic spectacle.
Beginning a year before the 2024 eclipse and working closely with the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force, TOTALITY's film team followed a range of people as they prepare for the unstoppable line-up of the earth, moon, and sun. Characters include astronomers, Texas cowboys, French-Canadian inventors, astro photographers, a Texas minister, a 100 year-old woman, a blind boy. On the day of the eclipse, 21 film teams led by top documentary cinematographers capture a swath of humanity under an astonishing, eerie skyscape in a moment of collective awe.
With no tickets required, no political agenda, no winners or losers, TOTALITY paints the 2024 total eclipse as an equalizer, a spectacular reminder of our tiny place in a vast universe.
THE FILM TEAM
Directors Kate Davis and David Heilbroner
Kate Davis and David Heilbroner have made more than 20 documentaries with world distribution in theaters and on platforms including HBO, MTV, PBS American Experience, MSNBC, Paramount Plus, the History Channel, BBC, and ARTE.
Davis’s film SOUTHERN COMFORT won over 25 festival awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, a Special Jury Award at the Berlinale, First Prize at Hot Docs and Seattle Film Festival, an NAACP Image Award and The Grierson Award in England for Best Documentary. David co-directed DIONNE WARWICK: DON’T MAKE ME OVER, which was a centerpiece at the Toronto Film Festival.
Kate and David are 2017 Academy Award nominees for TRAFFIC STOP, which also won the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC. They directed and produced SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND (NAACP Image Award), THE NEWBURGH STING (Peabody Award), JOCKEY (Emmy Award, Best Direction), STONEWALL UPRISING (Peabody Award), and SCOPES: THE BATTLE OVER AMERICA’S SOUL for the History Channel (EMMY Award).
Derek Howard, Director of Photography
Derek Howard’s work has screened at Venice, Berlinale, Telluride, Sundance, TIFF, SXSW, IDFA, among other festivals. He was a participant in the IDFA Summer School, IDFAcademy, Reykjavik International Film Festival’s Trans Atlantic Talent Lab, Berlinale Talents, and the Playlab Filming in the Amazon residency with Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
He filmed “Dear Fatima,” which won the best film, best direction, and audience awards at the 2026 Guadalajara Film Festival, and Raha Shirazi’s “A War on Women,” which premiered at Hot Docs.
Harrison Nir, Co-producer
Harrison Nir is a social entrepreneur and creative producer working across film, oral history, and immersive media. He is the founder of Run Artist Run and a co-founder of CrowdSorcery, the platform that built and ran TOTALITY’s crowdsourced media campaign, gathering more than 2,000 eclipse-day submissions from across three countries. His co-productions include work with Oscar-nominated Sandbox Films and Emmy and Peabody-winning Q-Ball Productions.
SANDBOX FILMS
Sandbox Films is a documentary studio that illuminates the art and beauty of scientific inquiry. Sandbox provides creative and financial support for artist-driven documentary projects that explore the world (and beyond) with curiosity, creativity, and humanity.
Sandbox’ slate of critically acclaimed films includes Academy-Award nominated FIRE OF LOVE, Sundance Jury Prize winners ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE and NOCTURNES, Werner Herzog’s FIREBALL, Penny Lane’s CONFESSIONS OF A GOOD SAMARITAN and Emmy-winning FATHOM. These and other Sandbox Films have found extensive audiences via Apple TV, Hulu, National Geographic Documentary Films, NEON and Netflix, and in movie theaters internationally. Their most recent HBO film, WILD INSIDE, is currently playing in theaters across the United States.
Directed, produced and edited by
Kate Davis and David Heilbroner
Executive Producer
Jessica Harrop
Executive Producer
Caitlin Mae Burke
Director of Photography
Derek Howard
Music Composed by
Troy Herion and J.R. Narrows
Co-producer
Harrison Nir
Associate Producer
Marcus Wright
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