09/23/2026
Former long-time MSP Professor has written and directed an art-experimental film! “Dark Skies, Hot Planet, Cool Gaze" (2025, 91 minutes) was selected for the SCINEMA Science Film Festival in Australia, where it won Honorable Mention (2nd Place) for Experimental Film.
Earlier this year, the film was awarded “Best Futuristic Film” at the World Film Festival in Cannes, a festival for true independent films. In Fall 2025, the film also won Honorable Mention (2nd Place) for Documentary at the Barcelona Planet Film Festival.
The film is still under consideration at other festivals.
About the film: An existential road trip for our time -- as humanity accelerates into the sixth mass extinction event on Planet Earth. Set near the border of Far West Texas and Northern Mexico, this is a journey into a cautionary, yet hopeful vision of the future for the human species. This meditative film counters the infinite scroll on tiny screens with the endless drive on narrow highways in the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve, the largest international dark sky reserve on Earth.
Pro-Tip: AI and Tech Bros Ain’t Gonna Save Us.
More info and images can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/barryvackerart/
Dr. Vacker is also contributing to a new Land Art project, assisting artist Catherine Langley with construction of “The Pleiades” — a large Land Art installation created at the University of New Mexico-Taos. In addition to helping build the spheres, Vacker will be making a short art film about the meaning of the project, which involves eight large adobe spheres, coated in a blue-white finish to mirror the relative size and location of the eight stars of the Pleiades constellation. The spheres will range from 3-6 feet tall and will be spread across a sagebrush desert landscape adjacent to the campus.
