National Evening Of Science On Screen On March 22

23 Film Organizations From California To Massachusetts Will Feature Science Speakers At Film Screenings On March 22

Source: Amherst Cinema

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Coolidge Corner Theatre announce the 2022 National Evening of Science on Screen®, coming to Amherst Cinema and venues across the nation on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. That evening, participating organizations will use one of the nation’s favorite pastimes—going to the movies—to promote public understanding of science.  

The National Evening of Science on Screen is the annual showcase event of the nationwide Science on Screen grant initiative, which is funded by the Sloan Foundation and administered by the Coolidge. Over the past decade, Sloan has awarded the Coolidge over $4 million to develop and administer Science on Screen programs around the US through partnerships with other nonprofits. The Coolidge has in turn awarded 313 grants totaling over $2.5 million to 101 independent cinemas and/or museums in 42 states.

“For more than a decade, Amherst Cinema has offered filmgoers the perfect blend of entertainment and enlightenment through the Science on Screen® program,” said Executive Director Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer. “For this year’s national evening, Tim Johnson, Director of The Botanic Garden of Smith College, will introduce the film Adaptation and guide us through the mystical search for wild orchids in the swamps of Florida.”

Event Date
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 7:00 p.m.

Event Details
Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay for Adaptation takes ample liberty in adapting Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, creating wild fictions—both biographical and botanical. Smith College Plant scientist Tim Johnson, who studied the real ghost orchid in Florida, sets the record straight about the flowers that play such a central role in the film.

Adaptation. (2002) — Director Spike Jonze delivers a stunningly original comedy that seamlessly blends fictional characters and situations with the lives of real people: obsessive orchid hunter John Laroche (Chris Cooper in an Oscar-winning role), New Yorker journalist Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), and his twin brother, Donald (also Cage). NYT Critic’s Pick

To learn more and purchase tickets, look here.

A full listing of events can be viewed here.  

“We’re delighted to partner with the Coolidge Corner Theatre in celebrating the 9th National Evening of Science on Screen across America, especially in a year where incredible scientific advancement in vaccine development and COVID-19 treatment has allowed us to begin to return, gingerly, to indoor cinema,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “These events, which pair expert speakers with popular titles such as Sloan-winning films Hidden Figures, Don’t Look Up, and After Yang, demonstrate that science can illuminate films just as films can illuminate science. We’re especially proud that theaters are selecting recent Sloan-supported documentaries Coded Bias, Picture a Scientist, and How to Survive a Pandemic and bringing attention to urgent contemporary issues.”  

Science on Screen grantee theaters run three or more Science on Screen events per year, creatively pairing screenings of classic, cult, science fiction, and documentary films with presentations by notable experts from the world of science and technology. Each film serves as a jumping-off point for the speaker to introduce current research or technological advances in a way that engages general audiences. The grant is funded by the Sloan Foundation’s Program for Public Understanding of Science, Technology & Economics and administered by the Coolidge Corner Theatre, the celebrated Massachusetts art-house cinema that launched the Science on Screen format in 2005.

For more information about the Science on Screen grant initiative, visit the Science on Screen website here.

About Amherst Cinema  
Amherst Cinema is an independent, nonprofit arts and education center brimming with world-class programs. The comfortable, fully accessible theater offers state-of-the-art projection and sound, and is a welcoming crossroads for all. Amherst Cinema presents over 250 programs a year on four screens in more than 35 languages. For more information, visit www.amherstcinema.org or follow the Cinema on Instagram and Facebook at @AmherstCinema.

About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in three areas: research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities.    

Sloan’s Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with a dozen leading film schools and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production, along with an annual best-of-the best Student Grand Jury Prize. The Foundation also supports screenplay development programs with the Sundance Institute, SFFILM, Film Independent, the Black List, the Athena Film Festival, and the North Fork TV Festival, and has helped develop over 30 feature films including Tesla, Radium Girls, Adventures of a Mathematician, One Man Dies a Million Times, The Sound of Silence, To Dust, Operator, The Imitation Game, and The Man Who Knew Infinity. The Foundation has supported feature documentaries such as Picture a Scientist, Coded Bias, In Silico, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, The Bit Player, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Particle Fever, and Jacques Perrin’s Oceans. It has also given early recognition to stand out films such as Don’t Look Up, After Yang, Son of Monarchs, Ammonite, The Aeronauts, Searching, The Martian, and Hidden Figures.  

The Foundation has an active theater program and commissions about twenty science plays each year from the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the National Theatre in London, as well as supporting select productions across the country and abroad. Recent grants have supported Mark Rylance’s Dr. Semmelweis, Sam Chanse’s what you are now, Charly Evon Simpson’s Behind the Sheet, Bess Wohl’s Continuity, Lucy Kirkwood’s Mosquitoes, Chiara Atik’s Bump, Nick Payne’s Constellations, Lucas Hnath’s Isaac’s Eye, and Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51. The Foundation’s book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the best-selling book that became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of 2017 and Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus, currently being adapted for the big screen by director Christopher Nolan.  

For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, visit sloan.org or follow the Foundation on Twitter and Facebook at @SloanPublic.

About the Coolidge Corner Theatre
The nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theatre is a premier American independent cinema renowned for its curated feature film programming and innovative signature educational, cultural, and entertainment programs. A beloved movie house, the Coolidge has been pleasing audiences with the best in cinematic entertainment since 1933. In addition to premiere theatrical engagements of independent film and art house releases, the Coolidge presents numerous special programs including: Science on Screen, high definition live broadcasts from London’s National Theatre and world renowned opera and ballet companies, Big Screen Classics, midnite screenings, The Sounds of Silents®, and weekend kids’ programs. The Coolidge has won numerous awards and honors for its creative programming. For more information, visit coolidge.org.