Bill Muench
The Artist & the Astronaut
Pat and Jerry would grow up in the same neighborhood and go to the same schools. Pat would travel thousands of miles and Jerry would travel millions of miles before they would eventually meet each other in Houston Texas. This film centers around a uniquely American couple’s captivating story during the pinnacle of American exploration and social change. Although this film is in essence a love story, Pat and Jerry lived entire lives before they even met each other in 1976. Pat was a 1950’s housewife with three daughters married to a football coach. Jerry was an astronaut with six children of his own. The experiences that each of them went through in the 1960’s and 1970’s prepared them to create art that would address the very important social issues of woman’s rights, race relations, issues of the native Americans, environmental sustainability and war.
July 12, 2025
3:30-9:40 PM
Court Square Theater
44-02 23rd St, Long Island City
The story of the making of this documentary is as unlikely as the story depicted in the film itself. A full time teacher and basketball coach at the urging of his wife decides to make a documentary on a local Vermont couple. He embarked on this journey with no plan or budget. In the next six years, he travelled to nine states and two continents, interviewed numerous Apollo Astronauts, their wives, award-winning authors, artists, art historians, and NASA directors of mission control, teamed with music legend Todd Hobin, to provide a story that otherwise would have never been told. The unlikely meeting and incredible life journeys of artist Pat Musick and astronaut Jerry Carr.
Based on his own passion for the history and science of Space, Muench created the widely popular class, Space and Time. It was during this class that Muench brought in astronomers, authors, mission directors, NASA Astronauts. Muench recognized that the value of living history left a far greater impact on students than reading textbooks. It was in the context of Space and Time, that Muench met Jerry Carr and Pat Musick.
Muench has practiced a life long passion for photography, and film making. In 2010 when Muench took over the Cinematography program at Burr and Burton Academy, he could see an opportunity for documentary making. Muench recognized the value of story telling through film.
