Python help: Sending a "play" command to quicktime, or playing a movie in python

[Varnon Varnon]

I'm sure this is a simple problem, or at least I hope it is, but I'm
not an experience programer and the solution eludes me.

My realm of study is the behavioral sciences. I want to write a
program to help me record data from movie files.
Currently I have a program that can record the time of a keystroke so
that I can use that to obtain frequency, duration and other temporal
characteristics of the behaviors in my movies.

What I really want, is a way to start playing the movie. Right now I
have to play the movie, then switch to my program. I would love it if
it were possible for me to have my program send a message to quicktime
that says "play." Or any other work around really. If python could
play the movie, that would work just as well.

I'm using a mac btw.

Any suggestions?