FILM COMMENTS
“I just watched the LIGO documentary and was absolutely delighted. You got all of it: the fundamental nature of the science, the fact that many people have spent the major part of their careers on it, the joy of the people being part of the project, the excitement of the discovery ... the idea that this was the beginning of a new field of science. I don't think I have ever seen a better presentation of how science is done.
— Rai Weiss, Nobel Prize winning creator of LIGO.
“Everything fell in place to make this a great project. But, your ability to immerse yourself into our complex culture and project, distill the essentials, put them onto film and then make it interesting for viewers is truly impressive.”
— Barry Barish, 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed viewing this documentary. You did a terrific job with a long, challenging unfolding.
— France Cordova, Director, National Science Foundation.
“I really appreciate you highlighting all these female scientists and the work they've been doing. Their passion was electrifying!”
— Stavroula Toska, screenwriter, director, producer, production executive.
"What a great film! Amazing timing. An exclusive.
— Michael Young, 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine
"I have never seen a better science documentary. You captured the emotional side of a "Big Science" project incredibly well. The role of individuals in this marching army emerged seamlessly, along with the hopes and fears that drive them to commit to a task of such immensity, complexity, and unending duration. You enable the film audience to experience the heroic human element in this adventure, and what motivates each player to devote a scientific lifetime to this single problem.”
— Richard Isaacson, National Science Foundation program director, 1973-2001
“I cannot comprehend taking on a film on something that, at least for me, is so hard to understand, but you excelled in depicting the rewards achieved by some brilliant and committed scientists who worked so hard to show us the universe we occupy. No easy task.”
— Michael Peretzian, former agent for international screenwriters and directors.
"We watched your fascinating, riveting film last night. Thank you!! Now, I dunno nuthin’ about astronomy, much less physics, but I am always drawn to hearing more, watching more about the universe. Fascinated as I was to learn about this extraordinary moment, I also did think what a tough movie this was to make… But you really did yourselves proud!"
— Catherine Wyler, veteran film producer and daughter of legendary Hollywood director William Wyler.
“I was entranced by the LIGO Documentary and the many dimensions of the imagination it stimulates. The structure and the parallel stories of the science and the scientists was masterfully executed. The ascent to the “emotional peak” in the lives of Laureates was a joy to see and the scientific breakthrough thrilling.”
— Katherine Smalley, veteran documentary series producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“What a special and unique movie! You really captured the way we embody our work, what science means to us and many human facets of scientists. I found very faithful the way you have described the development of the events, and the seriousness and great enthusiasm with which we pursue our research. Thank you for sharing such a beautiful movie.”
— Alessandra Buonanno, director, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam, Germany.
“Thanks for sharing your remarkable film. It is a masterful presentation: the subject is complex, but you have made it accessible. You show frontier science at work in a lively and dramatic way. You have captured major moments while presenting vital background information. The interviews are diverse, informative and capture the passion of each and every scientist. The whole presentation is compelling from the computer graphics and animations to the cast of characters and their vision. Many, many congratulations.”
— Pat Ferns, “founder of independent production in Canada”. Longtime producer of documentaries and TV series. Founder of the Banff Television Festival.
"I have to congratulate you on the look. There's something about the way that it's shot that really captures what the people are actually like in person. It's beautiful.
— Rana Adhikari, Caltech Physics Professor and LIGO visionary.
"I thought it was really first class. You captured the human aspect of the discovery period. I’ve always hoped that books and films about science would give non-scientists the understanding that science at the forefront of knowledge is a very human cultural undertaking with lots of feeling, drama, emotion, etc. It is not a cold, mechanistic set of activities done by robotic nerds. But often science as a part of culture doesn’t come through. In your documentary it does.…”
— Jay Marx, former LIGO executive director, prominent American physicist
“A dream project, and you’ve done a wonderful job communicating a complex set of ideas in a compelling way.”
— Bill Morgan, screenwriter, director
“This movie manages to make the science behind this breakthrough fun and compelling for those of us who have heard of Einstein and Hawking but have no real grasp of the physics.”
— Sandra Schulberg, Founder of IFP and First Run Features. Longtime independent film producer and executive. Honored by the 2019 Berlinale film festival.
“You remember what happened when the gravitational waves produced by colliding black holes were found - it was a massive enthusiasm, it was an incredible discovery: For the first time you saw degrees of freedom of spacetime itself. It was like space and time were alive. It was incredible.”
— Andrei Linde, Professor of Physics at Stanford University.
ONLINE COMMENTS FROM YOUTUBE
@RyanTozek-f8q
• December 2025
“An extraordinary film about one of the greatest scientific milestones of our time. The discovery of gravitational waves—first from colliding black holes, then from neutron stars—opened up the ‘warped side’ of the universe that Einstein predicted but humanity had never seen. Les Guthman’s documentary captures not just the science, but the human courage of the 1,000 scientists who devoted decades to this search. Truly a once‑in‑a‑century achievement.”
@bryanhealy-y4l
• October 2025
“Every now and then, the old algorithm throws out a gem...fantastic documentary...well done to everyone involved!”
yank this0508
• October 2025
“Maybe de best documentary I've ever seen.. very interesting and explained well.”
@Ann_T_Fa_LaLaLaLa
• August 2025
“I just read Janna Levin's book "Black Hole Blues" and it's so awesome to actually see and hear the people she wrote about. This is a really great documentary, thank you!”
ProfessorDubey
• June 2025
“Message for year 3025 & beyond - Every discovery either be the Higgs boson or Gravitational waves, once portrayed in a beautiful documentary film like this one, makes a history. After decades or centuries if the then generations will see these they will know how their time travel dream actually started with LIGO.”
@jeremy.thejeweler
• April 2025
“I have been well aware of the hyper criticism amongst the science community especially about new theories and “firsts” for lack of a better term, but I had no idea of the work that went on to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that these readings were actually gravitational waves. Absolutely wonderful film. I’m so glad I found it.”
@CalvinHargreaves-jd7kz
• April 2025
“For those of us that are uneducated and watching something that’s amazing to our uneducated brains, this presentation was very interesting to try and wrap our brains around and the depth of what scientists are working on."
@certuv
• April 2025
“As with the comment below I came across this brilliant documentary.”
@Ava31415
April 2025
For all the literally millions of Ai generated crap videos, there is the occasional gold nugget, and this one touches on how the universe created that gold.... simply exceptional.
@jaredkerber5877
• March 2025
This show is an amazing artifact :) It's a great deep dive into the science, facilities, and challenges, and world changing discoveries!
@deeliciousplum
• March 2025
“1:43:47 Kip Thorne: "LIGO's direction is really understanding the wild dynamics of highly warped space-time." What Kip captures within what he shared may be one of those mountain-sized sources of awe and of inspiring wonder.”
@irena_stolic
• April 2024
“This is one of the greatest documentaries that I have ever seen! Congratulations to all the brilliant minds that contributed to the realization of the LIGO and thank you for this unique insight into the story behind it!”
👍10
@stephenarmiger8343
• April 2024
“As so often happens with YouTube, this just showed up one day. It looked fascinating, so I watched and listened. Oh my! Glorious!”
👍23
@BestFitSquareChannel
• April 2024
“I saw the original version. Now this! A thrill, privilege, inspiration. The humanity, humility, generosity on display an explicit presentation of the best our species produces. Thank you one and all involved in bringing this extraordinary story to light. Best wishes.”
@genburke2656
• March 2024
“Bravo! ....what a beautiful film. The signing of the book with all the signatures of earlier Nobel winners took my breath away. Great documentary.”
@mb5925
• March 2024
“Having visited the LIGO facility at Hanford, Washington, I had a sense of what a monumental accomplishment this was. This documentary filled in a lot of knowledge gaps for me, but it was especially nice to "meet" and hear from all of people who worked so hard and made this project come to fruition.”
@irenastolic9428
• January 19, 2024
“This is one of the greatest documentaries that I have ever seen! Congratulations to all the brilliant minds that contributed to the realization of the LIGO and thank you for this unique insight into the story behind it!”
@hydropotimus
• January 28, 2024
“I can't believe that this awesome movie is free! I love all you smart nerds! I'm a hobbyist physicist.”
@jimmydire8607
• 7 January 17, 2024
“This video has been savagely destroyed by YouTube's insertion of one disruptive commercial per minute of film. Sad that science has to truckle to Google greed. Who tunes in to a deeply informative LIGO documentary in hopes of being assailed with ad after ad for silly console games?”
@ColinJarrett
• January 18, 2024
“Hells bells I needed this documentary. In a troubled world, this reminded me of the purity and nobility of scientific enquiry.”
@angharadllewellyn2192
• January 23, 2024
“Best sci doc I've seen. I teach high school physics/astronomy. My students loved this.”
@johnsmolley1941
• January 1, 2024
“What a wonderful creation that of LIGO, and in no small measure this documentary. Seldom do we get such an intimate glimpse of science in action. and to see it so richly populated by women is icing on the cake. I'm sure some time in the near future that a curious child will see this and a spark ignited that may culminate in another exciting discovery. Thank you, great work!”
@PlakaDelos
• January 2024
“It's 5:15 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I started watching this video and I was enraptured. I've always been fascinated by science and have, since I retired, concentrated on learning about fields that interest me. Physics has been my big challenge (mainly the math) but this video opened up an entirely new way of thinking. I was impressed not only by the concepts but the clear presentation of the approaches taken to prove those concepts was fascinating. So, I am saving this video to watch again because I know that there is much I missed or didn't understand and I want to understand. Thank you.”
@endlessmotivationalthoughts
• December 3, 2023
“Absolutely brilliant documentary about what's maybe the most important observatory ever created. It is a superb film-remarkably emotional at times. Just awesome!”
@brahmburgers
• December 2023
“I am awe-struck at the abilities and perseverance of the men and women who made LIGO happen.”
@endlessmotivationalthoughts
• November 2023
“Absolutely brilliant documentary about what's maybe the most important observatory ever created. It is a superb film-remarkably emotional at times. Just awesome!”
@livinupinthebay7635
“KUDOS TO ALL INVOLVED We are all living in a golden age of science, technology, and wonder.”
@fasvi1285
“One of the great achievements in experimental physics. I am sharing this with all my physics students.”
Zero Company
• July 10, 2023
“Awesome discoveries. Awesome documentary. Thank you all involved.”
Trish Latham
• July 12, 2023
“This has been up for a month. Why only one comment? I understand so little of this, yet I'm crying with joy.”
@mwidick
• July 2022
“I was teaching my kids about LIGO in 2002! Now we discuss results with them as grown men. So happy a new video is available for us to talk about.”
Comment posted on Episode 9: aLIGO SNAPS
@petraligthart7020
• June 2023
“WOW. This is great. Loved all nine episodes. Compliments. You've got the Nobel Price, this deserves an Oscar. Thank you all for making this. I am going to watch it over and over.”
Comment posted on Episode 9: aLIGO SNAPS