Reality Lost documentary results from one-year filming project

The film by CQT Outreach Fellow Karol Jalochowski explores the mind-boggling questions raised by quantum theory. Watch excerpts now

What does quantum theory tell us about reality? Who are the scientists trying to unravel its puzzles? What practical things can we do with it? Can we dance it?

All these questions and more are taken on by Reality Lost, a documentary by journalist and film-maker Karol Jalochowski. Karol joined CQT in September 2012 as the Centre's first Outreach Fellow to spend a year working on a series of short documentaries.

The project evolved into a single feature-length episode that features eight leading researchers talking about quantum theory in locations ranging from dense jungle to hazy roof-tops and old boats to busy eateries. The film also features sequences of dance and of pottery-making at Singapore's largest surviving dragon kiln – contrasting abstract ideas and earthy reality.

"Making a documentary that deals with such an elusive yet mathematically well-defined subject matter meant using two boxes of tools simultaneously – those that are designed to spark the left, dead logical half of the brain, and those that tap the right half of the brain," says Karol.

CQT is now working with Karol to find the best ways to share the film with a wide audience. The documentary has been submitted to a number of film festivals and is listed on IMDb. Before the full movie is released, we are pleased to make available various extracts and bonus scenes. Find these clips and more detailed information about the movie, including credits, here: www.quantumlah.org/main/realitylost.php.

For a quick taste of the unconventional flavour of the film, here's the trailer.