Playlist
Join us on Saturday, March 26, from 10am to 6:00pm for a full day of science cinema presented by Harvard’s Department of the History of Science and Imagine Science Films. The program will include screenings of several shorts that explore singular and bold works bridging the worlds of science and film. They each seek to expand the role of science in the current cultural discourse by challenging stereotypes in scientific representation and celebrating diversity in form and content. Each short will be immediately followed by a discussion with the director, and invited faculty and grad students; Audience participation is also welcomed.
<p>We are backing up the planet, creating 3D models of animals, rainforests, cities and people. We are archiving as if ecological collapse could be staved off through some digital Noah’s Ark of beasts and objects. OUR ARK is an essay film on our efforts to create a virtual replica of the real world.</p>
<p>A little-told chapter in the story of black holes begins in 1930 Madras, India. 19-year-old Indian physics prodigy Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Chandra) is awarded a scholarship to go to England to study with Sir Arthur Eddington, the world’s most famous astronomer. While on his sea voyage, young Chandra makes a major discovery that goes against everything his new advisor believes: that sufficiently massive stars, when they use the last of their fuel, must be crushed by gravity and collapse to something far more dense and mysterious than any object anyone has known. After years of work to refine this result under his mentor's watchful eye, at the most public of forums, Eddington denounces his protégé and his work, shattering him, driving Chandra from England to the United States. Despite his humiliation, Chandra perseveres, but pursues a more conservative path in physics, never again braving the limelight. Nearly a half-century later in 1983, Chandrasekhar is awarded the Nobel Prize for the work begun on board that ship to England. “Shattering Stars” tells the story of ambition and betrayal, of loss and perseverance at the pinnacle of scientific research. Making use of original audio recordings of Chandrasekhar, the film alternates its limited-motion animation between a representational-documentary and imaginative-subjective style.</p>
<p>Light is information, a signal sounder than recollection. If there’s anyone out there to receive the message.<br /> <br /> Alone in a sealed apartment until time loses meaning, the world outside unreal or unreachable, archaic illuminations crawling across the walls, connections fraying. What is happening here? A science fictional essay film, or its inverse. A break-up film about optics, memory, data. Endings and what survives them or fails to.</p> <p>Many thanks due to Maya Edelman, Dave Zackin, Zach Nader, and the Regional Plan Association.</p>
<p>Realm, a virtual reality facility, is quite transparent about the erotic nature of its services: Wall to wall, it is lined with tempting previews of sexy, ready-made experiences. But Realm also offers something more: With the help of data-mining technology, clientele can create virtual facsimiles of real-life places and people. This hyper-personalization is what attracts Cecily, a young woman grappling with a disorienting world and an intense fixation.</p> <p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">A personal dive into the world’s most impersonal substance: plastics. Amid the lockdown, a bereaved mother unfolds a surprising journey within and across oceans to understand the contemporary landscape of single-use synthetics. From the noble intentions behind its invention to scales of havoc it has wrought, this experimental documentary brings together art, history, science, and the everyday. Playfully crafted with hand-drawn illustrations and poetic interludes, this evocative “pause between deep time and no time” will change how you think about this ordinary “thing without thingness.” </p> <p><br /> </p>
<p>Medium is a meditation on scale, process, and cellular life from the perspective of a biologist, Leo Blondel, as he dissects embryos of a marine crustacean. Straddling the micro and macro worlds, the film centers Leo's experience working under the microscope. </p>
<p><em>I invite you</em> is a sensory journey that illustrates the challenges that the brain faces in our everyday conversations, where the linguistic signal is often unclear, disrupted or obstructed.</p>
<p>Shakhbout shares with us the story of the first speaking Arabian Oryx "Mozaik" that changed the course of his life and for that matter the future of humankind.</p>
<p>Two immigrants recount the changes brought about by their journeys to the U.S., paralleling that of cells migrating in response to a wound.</p> <p><em>ISFF13 Symbiosis</em></p>
<p>A film about the phenomena of particle wave duality and how that translate into dance/ballet.</p>
<p>Fathom, a unit to measure depth. A medical-science trajectory toward understanding the deep complexity of distorted minds and the perception of the ones who suffer it. </p> <p><span style="color:#e74c3c"><strong>ISFF13 Symbiosis 2020 Winner </strong></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">In July 1969, much of the world celebrated the “giant leap for mankind” that the successful moon landing constituted. In 2020, nothing is quite so straightforward. In Event of Moon Disaster illustrates the possibilities of deepfake technologies by reimagining this seminal event.</p> <p dir="ltr">What if the Apollo 11 mission had gone wrong and the astronauts had not been able to return home? A contingency speech for this possibility was prepared, but never delivered by President Nixon – until now. The immersive project invites you into this alternative history and asks us all to consider how new technologies can bend, redirect and obfuscate the truth around us.</p>