Universe (1960 film)

Universe is a blackandwhite short documentary made in 1960 by the National Film Board of Canada. It creates on the screen a vast, aweinspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed.

After this work, codirector Colin Low worked with Stanley Kubrick on 2001 A Space Odyssey. His work on this short may have influenced Kubrick to begin his project. Kubrick chose Universe narrator Douglas Rain as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer and also hired Wally Gentleman, who did optical effects for the NFB documentary, to work on 2001.NASA alone ordered over 300 prints of the film. By 1976, the NFB had sold over 3100 copies of the film, and it was one of the most widely distributed educational films ever made. ........

Source: Wikipedia