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Independent films communicating science at Sundance 2014 JoAnn M. Valenti Public Understanding of Science 2014 23: 750 DOI: 10.1177/0963662514534060 The online version of this article can be found at: http://pus.sagepub.com/content/23/6/750
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534060 research-article2014
PUS0010.1177/0963662514534060Public Understanding of ScienceFestival review
P U S
Festival review
Independent films communicating science at Sundance 2014
Public Understanding of Science 2014, Vol. 23(6) 750–752 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0963662514534060 pus.sagepub.com
Reviewed by: JoAnn M. Valenti, Brigham Young University, USA
Of the 200 feature films presented from over 12,000 submissions at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, only a handful offer a realistic science theme or an accurate portrayal of a scientist. The Alfred P. Sloan Science Award winner was, for the second time, Mike Cahill, whose first Sloan science winner 3 years ago, Another Earth, imaged a slightly sci-fi astronomical future. In this year’s winning premiere I, Origins, Cahill wraps a serious science story around a molecular biologist dedicated to research on the evolution of eyes. Spanning over seven near-future years, the storyline moves from New York to Idaho to India, touching on everything from romance, sex, death, love, marriage, and the afterlife. The film stars Michael Pitt and Britt Marling, whose main wardrobe consists of the standard white lab coats, and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, a non-scientist holding onto notions of reincarnation. The story includes essential audience attention-holding devices while viewers witness a laboratory environment rich with testing a new theory, following the data, and chasing a conclusion. Exposure to the process and the passion in science, even in failure, creates an accurate science scenario. “I’m trying to tell something so epic but in an intimate, personal story,” Cahill said. He’s convinced science stretched into a fictional future offers a continuing source of interesting, relevant themes for filmmakers. I, Origins is being distributed internationally by Fox Searchlight. This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the critically acclaimed film event founded by Actor/ Director Robert Redford. The non-profit’s mission remains the same, now with a three decade history of giving voice to independent filmmakers. “Change is inevitable,” Redford said, “You either resist it—we know who those people are—or you go with it. We want to ride with that wave.” In addition to screening films during the 11-day event, Sundance offers a variety of workshops and panel discussions. During the Sundance panel, The Cosmic Crossroads, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Deputy Chief for Solar Exploration Kevin Hand reported that as he serves as a consultant to filmmakers he advises that the focus be to “make science inspire wonder.” According to panelist Max Mayer, whose film Better Living and Adam won the Sloan Award in 2009, the key is to borrow the intelligence from science but make it poetic and understandable. Jurors for this year’s Sloan Prize included two well-known scientists: Kevin Hand, deputy chief scientist for Solar System Exploration at NASA whose research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system with fieldwork in some of Earth’s most extreme environments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, to the depths of the Earth’s oceans, to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro; and astronomer Jill Tarter, the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute who was the real-life researcher upon whom the Jodie Foster character in Contact is largely based. Flora Lichtman, a science journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio’s Science Friday, and Popular Science
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
751
Festival review
magazine, and Jon Spaihts, a one-time physics student now science writer who specializes in science fiction, also served as jurists. Other science features the Sloan jurors likely considered include Song One starring Ann Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen as mother–daughter anthropologists coping with a comatose son/ brother. The story focuses on using music as a health restoration intervention. The feature film Infinitely Polar Bear stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Soldana in a story from the filmmaker’s life about a family’s struggle with manic depression. Young Ones, one of the only films this year to address an environment issue, forecasts a barren earth where water is the sought after commodity. Not considered for the science award were several science-related documentaries and shorts. Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory tackles another music and health theme using individualized music directed via headphones and iPads to dementia patients as a more successful alternative to prescription drugs. Two documentaries critique Internet addiction: Web Junkie reports on deprogramming efforts on afflicted teens in China, and Love Child chronicles the South Korean trial of parents condemned for causing the death of their a child while preoccupied playing video games. In the documentary Sepideh an Iranian high school student challenges cultural norms as she strives to become an astronaut. The short film Afronauts revisits Zambia’s 1969 space effort, again showcasing a woman in science. Eight documentaries and seven short films listed in the “science/technology/environment” genre also screened at the annual late January event held in the mountains of Park City, Utah. Per the Sloan Foundation’s requirements, the solitary award for science considers only feature length narrative films. Although a number of well-received documentaries have attacked science issues, within the industry “docs” are seen as the underdog, merely preaching to the choir, perhaps reinforcing existing attitudes, but not reaching the desired larger audience, and rarely profitable. Past Sundance documentaries An Inconvenient Truth (American then-presidential candidate Al Gore’s lecture on global warming), or last year’s Chasing Ice (a beautifully filmed exploration of real climate change impact), and Blackfish (an expose of the effect on orcas in captivity in marine entertainment attractions around the world) were successful with audiences and received wide distribution, but were considered controversial. Film attention may have raised these issues on some agendas, but no data emerged to assess attitude or behavior change. Social science research suggests that films may be used as prompts, for example, a “date-night” movie to energize a romantic relationship. The Sundance Institute’s Tabitha Jackson champions the documentary camera as an empathy machine, not to be confused with reality television or homework. She calls the genre’s greatest strength its ability to “pose a question powerful enough to elicit empathy in the viewer.” Her point of view seems to challenge research on the Theory of Mind, the human capacity to comprehend others’ beliefs and desires. Recent experimental evidence indicates that exposure to literary fiction, in-depth portrayals of characters’ inner feelings and thoughts, in comparison to nonfiction or popular fiction, enhances readers’ understanding of subjects. (Kidd and Castano, 2013; Shayna Rosendaum et al., 2007) The decision-makers awarding the Sloan prize are more consistent with science theory. Yet, researchers at the University of Maryland and Wellesley College reported in an as yet non-peer reviewed study that an analysis of the MTV reality series “16 and Pregnant” and the spin-offs “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2” influenced a decline in teen birth rates in the United States after the show began airing in 2009. Authors Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine, both economists, were quoted in US national media as reporting that “the realities of the lives of teen mothers are presented in ways that may have been unknown or difficult to imagine for teens viewing the show” (see for example, USA TODAY, 2014). In the ongoing battle to change views on smoking, the tobacco industry still spends billions of dollars each year, much to infiltrate smoking into movies including characters in this year’s Sundance films. Change in existing attitudes and behaviors, requires more than just facts. Narratives are intrinsically persuasive.
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
752
Public Understanding of Science 23(6)
In addition to the continuing Sloan Foundation support for science in films, the Wellcome Trust also offers a substantial screenwriting money prize for films inspired by medicine and biology. If mainstreaming science is the goal—creating interest, knowledge, and understanding of science— independent filmmakers will be critical to the larger movement. Last year the genre list for science films reached an all time high, although of the 21 titles, 14 were documentaries, others shorts. Actual science narrative features were few and primarily health specific or tech themed. A quirky tech history feature won the Sloan Award but received little to no distribution. A continuing trend of science framed primarily as health or technology seems likely. No hard data exist on the number of films that might have been considered in a science genre over the festival’s three decades or since the Sloan award for science began some 10 years ago. However, Doron Weber, Sloan’s Vice President for Science Programming said that in his experience, “We average 3–4 science contenders a year—some years more, some less—and in recent years several of the finalists have been films we ourselves developed [through the Sloan/Sundance Institute partnership].” Weber’s sense is that there’s still a dearth and a need for more attention to science in indie films. On the other hand, he points to three 2013 Academy Award/Oscar films—Gravity, Her, and The Dallas Buyers Club—with science/technology themes, so even if it’s too early to call that a trend, it’s noteworthy. Nothing wrong with audience attention to robotics, health, or advancing technology, but there’s much more to understand in emerging science. See http://www.sundance.org or search by film titles for more information. Contact Dr Valenti at [email protected]. References Kidd DC and Castano E (2013) Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342: 377–380 Shayna Rosendaum R, Stuss DT, Levine B and Tulving E (2007) Theory of mind is independent of episodic memory. Science 318: 1257. USA TODAY (2014) MTV series is like birth control. USA TODAY, January.
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
Independent films communicating science at Sundance 2014 JoAnn M. Valenti Public Understanding of Science 2014 23: 750 DOI: 10.1177/0963662514534060 The online version of this article can be found at: http://pus.sagepub.com/content/23/6/750
Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com
Additional services and information for Public Understanding of Science can be found at: Email Alerts: http://pus.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://pus.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://pus.sagepub.com/content/23/6/750.refs.html
>> Version of Record - Jul 1, 2014 What is This?
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
534060 research-article2014
PUS0010.1177/0963662514534060Public Understanding of ScienceFestival review
P U S
Festival review
Independent films communicating science at Sundance 2014
Public Understanding of Science 2014, Vol. 23(6) 750–752 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0963662514534060 pus.sagepub.com
Reviewed by: JoAnn M. Valenti, Brigham Young University, USA
Of the 200 feature films presented from over 12,000 submissions at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, only a handful offer a realistic science theme or an accurate portrayal of a scientist. The Alfred P. Sloan Science Award winner was, for the second time, Mike Cahill, whose first Sloan science winner 3 years ago, Another Earth, imaged a slightly sci-fi astronomical future. In this year’s winning premiere I, Origins, Cahill wraps a serious science story around a molecular biologist dedicated to research on the evolution of eyes. Spanning over seven near-future years, the storyline moves from New York to Idaho to India, touching on everything from romance, sex, death, love, marriage, and the afterlife. The film stars Michael Pitt and Britt Marling, whose main wardrobe consists of the standard white lab coats, and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, a non-scientist holding onto notions of reincarnation. The story includes essential audience attention-holding devices while viewers witness a laboratory environment rich with testing a new theory, following the data, and chasing a conclusion. Exposure to the process and the passion in science, even in failure, creates an accurate science scenario. “I’m trying to tell something so epic but in an intimate, personal story,” Cahill said. He’s convinced science stretched into a fictional future offers a continuing source of interesting, relevant themes for filmmakers. I, Origins is being distributed internationally by Fox Searchlight. This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the critically acclaimed film event founded by Actor/ Director Robert Redford. The non-profit’s mission remains the same, now with a three decade history of giving voice to independent filmmakers. “Change is inevitable,” Redford said, “You either resist it—we know who those people are—or you go with it. We want to ride with that wave.” In addition to screening films during the 11-day event, Sundance offers a variety of workshops and panel discussions. During the Sundance panel, The Cosmic Crossroads, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Deputy Chief for Solar Exploration Kevin Hand reported that as he serves as a consultant to filmmakers he advises that the focus be to “make science inspire wonder.” According to panelist Max Mayer, whose film Better Living and Adam won the Sloan Award in 2009, the key is to borrow the intelligence from science but make it poetic and understandable. Jurors for this year’s Sloan Prize included two well-known scientists: Kevin Hand, deputy chief scientist for Solar System Exploration at NASA whose research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system with fieldwork in some of Earth’s most extreme environments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, to the depths of the Earth’s oceans, to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro; and astronomer Jill Tarter, the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute who was the real-life researcher upon whom the Jodie Foster character in Contact is largely based. Flora Lichtman, a science journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio’s Science Friday, and Popular Science
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
751
Festival review
magazine, and Jon Spaihts, a one-time physics student now science writer who specializes in science fiction, also served as jurists. Other science features the Sloan jurors likely considered include Song One starring Ann Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen as mother–daughter anthropologists coping with a comatose son/ brother. The story focuses on using music as a health restoration intervention. The feature film Infinitely Polar Bear stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Soldana in a story from the filmmaker’s life about a family’s struggle with manic depression. Young Ones, one of the only films this year to address an environment issue, forecasts a barren earth where water is the sought after commodity. Not considered for the science award were several science-related documentaries and shorts. Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory tackles another music and health theme using individualized music directed via headphones and iPads to dementia patients as a more successful alternative to prescription drugs. Two documentaries critique Internet addiction: Web Junkie reports on deprogramming efforts on afflicted teens in China, and Love Child chronicles the South Korean trial of parents condemned for causing the death of their a child while preoccupied playing video games. In the documentary Sepideh an Iranian high school student challenges cultural norms as she strives to become an astronaut. The short film Afronauts revisits Zambia’s 1969 space effort, again showcasing a woman in science. Eight documentaries and seven short films listed in the “science/technology/environment” genre also screened at the annual late January event held in the mountains of Park City, Utah. Per the Sloan Foundation’s requirements, the solitary award for science considers only feature length narrative films. Although a number of well-received documentaries have attacked science issues, within the industry “docs” are seen as the underdog, merely preaching to the choir, perhaps reinforcing existing attitudes, but not reaching the desired larger audience, and rarely profitable. Past Sundance documentaries An Inconvenient Truth (American then-presidential candidate Al Gore’s lecture on global warming), or last year’s Chasing Ice (a beautifully filmed exploration of real climate change impact), and Blackfish (an expose of the effect on orcas in captivity in marine entertainment attractions around the world) were successful with audiences and received wide distribution, but were considered controversial. Film attention may have raised these issues on some agendas, but no data emerged to assess attitude or behavior change. Social science research suggests that films may be used as prompts, for example, a “date-night” movie to energize a romantic relationship. The Sundance Institute’s Tabitha Jackson champions the documentary camera as an empathy machine, not to be confused with reality television or homework. She calls the genre’s greatest strength its ability to “pose a question powerful enough to elicit empathy in the viewer.” Her point of view seems to challenge research on the Theory of Mind, the human capacity to comprehend others’ beliefs and desires. Recent experimental evidence indicates that exposure to literary fiction, in-depth portrayals of characters’ inner feelings and thoughts, in comparison to nonfiction or popular fiction, enhances readers’ understanding of subjects. (Kidd and Castano, 2013; Shayna Rosendaum et al., 2007) The decision-makers awarding the Sloan prize are more consistent with science theory. Yet, researchers at the University of Maryland and Wellesley College reported in an as yet non-peer reviewed study that an analysis of the MTV reality series “16 and Pregnant” and the spin-offs “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2” influenced a decline in teen birth rates in the United States after the show began airing in 2009. Authors Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine, both economists, were quoted in US national media as reporting that “the realities of the lives of teen mothers are presented in ways that may have been unknown or difficult to imagine for teens viewing the show” (see for example, USA TODAY, 2014). In the ongoing battle to change views on smoking, the tobacco industry still spends billions of dollars each year, much to infiltrate smoking into movies including characters in this year’s Sundance films. Change in existing attitudes and behaviors, requires more than just facts. Narratives are intrinsically persuasive.
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
752
Public Understanding of Science 23(6)
In addition to the continuing Sloan Foundation support for science in films, the Wellcome Trust also offers a substantial screenwriting money prize for films inspired by medicine and biology. If mainstreaming science is the goal—creating interest, knowledge, and understanding of science— independent filmmakers will be critical to the larger movement. Last year the genre list for science films reached an all time high, although of the 21 titles, 14 were documentaries, others shorts. Actual science narrative features were few and primarily health specific or tech themed. A quirky tech history feature won the Sloan Award but received little to no distribution. A continuing trend of science framed primarily as health or technology seems likely. No hard data exist on the number of films that might have been considered in a science genre over the festival’s three decades or since the Sloan award for science began some 10 years ago. However, Doron Weber, Sloan’s Vice President for Science Programming said that in his experience, “We average 3–4 science contenders a year—some years more, some less—and in recent years several of the finalists have been films we ourselves developed [through the Sloan/Sundance Institute partnership].” Weber’s sense is that there’s still a dearth and a need for more attention to science in indie films. On the other hand, he points to three 2013 Academy Award/Oscar films—Gravity, Her, and The Dallas Buyers Club—with science/technology themes, so even if it’s too early to call that a trend, it’s noteworthy. Nothing wrong with audience attention to robotics, health, or advancing technology, but there’s much more to understand in emerging science. See http://www.sundance.org or search by film titles for more information. Contact Dr Valenti at [email protected]. References Kidd DC and Castano E (2013) Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342: 377–380 Shayna Rosendaum R, Stuss DT, Levine B and Tulving E (2007) Theory of mind is independent of episodic memory. Science 318: 1257. USA TODAY (2014) MTV series is like birth control. USA TODAY, January.
Downloaded from pus.sagepub.com at Aston University - FAST on August 27, 2014
