Echoes of the Invisible: Pushing the Limits of Human Experience

Factual America

Award-winning documentary Echoes of the Invisible (2020) looks at timelessness, the origins of the universe, and what it means to be one of the almost 8 billion inhabitants of Planet Earth.

The film follows the explorers who are pushing the human body and technology beyond known limits in the most extreme environments on Earth. One of them is Paul Salopek, a journalist walking across the world in the footsteps of the earliest human migrations. Others include scientists like Joe Incandela, building machines to look back nearly to the beginning of time.

Joining us is the award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor Steve Elkins, and two other participants in this film – particle physicist Joe Incandela, and Julia Payne, who is the project manager for Paul Salopek at the Out of Eden project.

Echoes of the Invisible took almost 7 years to make, as Steve travelled the globe interviewing scientists, monks, and athletes. We discuss the journey of making this film, and the great wealth of human experiences on this marvellous planet.

“I take a whole bunch of stories that absolutely deserve their own documentaries, but I try to see what sparks fly off when you collide these different stories together.” - Steve Elkins