A twenty-seven kilometre film

For the past two weeks, Bram Conjaerts, a Belgian filmmaker, has been touring the CERN sites and surrounding countryside conducting research for his new documentary. The film will follow the entire 27 Km length of the LHC ring, but unlike most documentaries about the LHC, it will take place mostly above ground!

While working towards his film degree in 2008, Bram Conjaerts won an award at the International Documentary Festival for his documentary "Henri and the Islands", an anthropological documentary about the smallest village in Belgium. In an unlikely change of subject matter he decided to use the prize money to make a film about the LHC.

"With the money granted by the Flemish government, I wanted to create a documentary about something adventurous and something that I did not know about, " explains Conjaerts. "I started doing research about the LHC and CERN and I came across the fantasy of black holes and all the conspiracies revolving around CERN."

However, the proposed documentary will not focus on black holes. Conjaerts plans on taking a tour of the countryside under which the LHC ring is laid, in order to gain perspectives from those who inhabit the local surroundings. "We will follow the path of the ring above ground. So we’ll interview scientists, but also meet locals who have formed their own opinions about what is going on at CERN," says Conjaerts. "We might also meet the priests of churches on the route, who have special ideas about religion and science. And also the Chateau Voltaire is near the top of the ring, so there are ideas about incorporating philosophical perspectives of science and the history of the chateau."

Conjaerts, who is only beginning his career as a filmmaker, will be conducting research for three weeks before starting preliminary filming in September. The rest of the filming will be completed before December 2010.