Film & Science Initiative
The mission of the Woods Hole Film Festival’s Film and Science Initiative is to accelerate collaboration and conversation between filmmakers and scientists. The Initiative connects filmmakers and scientists to help them create films and other visual media that helps to improve public understanding of science.
Aspects of this Initiative are incorporated into the annual Festival as part of the broader mission. Through the ongoing program Bringing Science to the Screen, the Festival includes a substantial number of science-focused films in the annual Festival program and year-round series. The Science and Storytelling program brings together scientists, filmmakers and screenwriters during the Festival for topical panel discussions. Through the Initiative’s workshops, panels, fellowships and conferences, scientists and filmmakers develop expertise to collaborate and create visual media that is both informative and engaging.
By developing partnerships with organizations such as the Museum of Science, Boston, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory and the MIT Museum, Cambridge, independent filmmakers and storytellers, distributors, educational organizations and funders, the Initiative will be able to expand and provide opportunities for scientists and filmmakers to work together to create and show impactful films about science.
Our immediate goal is to increase organizational capacity, expand and enhance partnerships to scale up the Initiative.
Programs
- Film/Visual Media Production Partnership: create and produce science focused films and visual media.
- Filmmaker Fellowship/Incubator: one year opportunity for up to 2 fellows to work on a film in Woods Hole. Connect filmmakers with space, access to leaders in ocean and environmental science, filmmaking mentorship and expert advice.
- Intensive: 2 month program for filmmakers with science-focused works-in-progress
- Bringing Science to the Screen: event-oriented screenings throughout the year.
- Fiscal Sponsorship: Festival serves as a fiscal sponsor for science focused films.
Key personnel: Judy Laster, Megan Sanchez-Warner, Hanumant Singh, Rachel Somer, Hortense Gerardo, Beth Murphy, Mary Chiochios.
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UPCOMING EVENTS 2023
Friday, September 29 | 6:00 pm
MIT Open Space Programming in conjunction with the Woods Hole Film Festival presents a free outdoor screening of the feature documentary PATRICK AND THE WHALE as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. The event is free, but advanced registration is required. Click here to register and for more information.
Saturday, September 30 | 6:00 pm
The MIT Museum presents selections from the Woods Hole Film Festival monthly from September through December 2023. The films include documentary feature films: The Artist and the Astronaut, Sat. September 30th; Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, Wed. October 18th; The Space Race, Wed. November 15th and In the Whale, Wed. December 6th. Click here to purchase tickets and for more information.
PAST EVENTS 2023
Join the Woods Hole Film Festival and the Museum of Science, Boston for a screening of the feature documentary EXPOSURE in the Mugar Omni Theater followed by a Q&A with director Holly Morris.
Thursday, April 6 | 7:00 pm
Woods Hole Film Festival Presents: Exposure إنكشاف
As the Arctic polar ice cap melts, reaching the North Pole has become increasingly dangerous. Yet an expedition of ordinary women from the Arab world and the West strap on skis and haul heaving sledges toward true North, against all odds and polar advice. Award-winning filmmaker Holly Morris captures it all, from frostbite and polar bear threats to sexism and self-doubt in the intimate story of resilience, survival, and global citizenry — on what might be the last-ever expedition to the top of the world.
Watch the trailer for Exposure نكشاف here: https://www.exposure-film.com/teaser
Funding provided by the Richard S. Morse Fund.
https://www.mos.org/explore/subspace/exposure
PAST EVENTS 2022
SUMMER THURSDAYS AT THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE/BOSTON
On the Third Thursday of every month this summer, join the Museum of Science, Boston and the Woods Hole Film Festival in the Mugar Omni Theater for a lineup of independent film screenings amplifying inspiring and vital stories of climate change from some of today’s most visionary documentary filmmakers.
31ST WOODS HOLE FILM FESTIVAL: BRINGING SCIENCE TO THE SCREEN PROGRAM
The extraordinary love story of intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died just as explosively as they lived – capturing the most spectacular imagery ever recorded of their greatest passion: volcanoes.
A journey across both poles, After Antarctica follows legendary polar explorer Will Steger’s lifelong journey as an eyewitness to the greatest changes to the polar regions of our planet. Now, thirty years after his historic coast-to-coast expedition across the coldest continent on Earth, Steger heads out on the ice once again, at a time when he is not only known for being the first in history to complete these historic feats – he is also the last;
JUL 31: The Lake at the Bottom of the World
An international team of scientists explores a subglacial lake buried 3,600 feet beneath the Antarctic ice to reveal hidden truths about our planet’s dynamic past. As they struggle against the ferocity of the ice and wind, they consider how our relationship with nature – and with one another – will impact humanity’s future and the future of all life on our rapidly changing planet.
AUG 1: Of Medicine and Miracles
Of Medicine and Miracles follows Dr. Carl June as he attempts to find a cure for cancer using the HIV virus. All of June’s research and work are on the line when 5-year-old Emily Whitehead, who has run out of options to beat her Leukemia, becomes the first child to enroll in his experimental trial.
Eleven novice women explorers from the Arab World and the West embark on a physically and emotionally demanding journey to the top of the world on the rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice.
At nineteen, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar’s major discovery about black holes collided with accepted physics, and he was publicly humiliated. Decades later he would win the Nobel Prize, but he had already chosen a different kind of scientific achievement.
A diverse group of middle-school students go on the journey of a lifetime when they compete in a nationwide tournament to code satellites aboard the International Space Station.
DISPATCHES FROM AN OCEAN PLANET
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in partnership with the Yawkey Foundation, proudly presents “Dispatches from an Ocean Planet”, a summer series of film and literature. Screening in Woods Hole, MA.
AUG 1: From Pole to Pole: Documenting Climate Change in Extreme Locations (Panel Discussion, Woods Hole Film Festival)
AUG 20: Bruce and Alvin whoi.edu/yawkey-series/
Film/Visual Media Production Partnership
BRUCE AND ALVIN, co-production Seftel Productions and Woods Hole Film Festival Film & Science Initiative.
A short documentary about the history and future of Alvin, one of the world’s only remaining publicly-funded manned submersibles, as told through the eyes of long-time Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution pilot Bruce Strickrott. We learn about the inspiration for this unlikely hero of the sea whose capacity to help us to see the deepest parts of the world’s oceans in person has lead to discoveries that were once considered to be impossible. As a pilot and program manager, Bruce views his job as one which allows him to change lives by taking scientists to the ocean depths. As one of a handful of people on earth who operates this vehicle, Bruce is aware of the importance of what he does and of the need to pass on this knowledge to future generations to support science and discovery. BRUCE AND ALVIN a short documentary by Josh Seftel, USA, 2021, 24 mins.
Our Future, Our Fight, docuseries co-production Principle Pictures and Woods Hole Film Festival Film & Science Initiative.
OUR FUTURE, OUR FIGHT celebrates the young activists and scientists tackling the climate crisis. This fun, fact-filled 10 part docuseries brings audiences into the exciting world of teens leading the climate action movement. In each episode, young activists share their personal motivation for taking action and team up with a climate scientist to explore solutions. From understanding the ways Indigenous practices can fight wildfires to addressing systemic racism for environmental justice, young people are leading the charge to save our planet… before it’s too late.
In the pilot episode WILDFIRES, we introduce Jonah Gottlieb, a Bay Area teen moved to action because of wildfires raging in his backyard. He investigates the connection between climate change and fire and how the Indigenous practice of cultural burning can offer solutions. A film by Beth Murphy, short documentary episode, USA, 2021 (22 mins.) Produced by Principle Pictures and the Woods Hole Film Festival Film & Science Initiative. Selected to screen at the Woods Hole Film Festival (2021), the Environmental Film Festival in Our Nation’s Capital (2022), Cleveland International Film Festival (2022), Annapolis Film Festival (2022), River Run Film Festival, (2022), Indie Short Fest (2022).
Production is underway for Episode 2 in which we meet Juwaria Jama, an 18-year old first generation Somali from Minneapolis, Minnesota who tackles environmental racism. After realizing pollution is responsible for skyrocketing asthma rates – especially in lower-income areas of her city, Juwaria decides to do something about it. She knows that people of color are most impacted by the climate crisis, and she’s challenging environmental inequalities in her state and beyond. We follow her to New York City where she will partner with Mychal Johnson, a long-time community-based advocate and co-founder of South Bronx Unite. Together, they seek solutions to climate injustice and help audiences understand why climate change is a crisis that doesn’t affect everyone equally.
Completed: 2019.
Super Reefs: The Future of Coral, co-production Northern Light Productions and Woods Hole Film Festival Film & Science Initiative. The short documentary Super Reefs: The Future of Coral premiered on May 16, 2019 in Woods Hole to a full house.
Anne Cohen is a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she studies the impact of climate change on corals. Through her research, she and her team have discovered that some coral populations appear to be withstanding heatwaves that cause other corals to bleach and die. Called “Super Reefs”, these corals are of great scientific and conservation interest because they have potential to survive ocean warming and produce larvae that can help to regrow reefs devastated by climate change.
So far, just a handful of Super Reefs have been discovered but there are more. Anne and her team are working to locate them and provide coral reef nations with the information needed to incorporate Super Reefs into Marine Protected Areas to maximize their chances of survival. Through her scientific research she is working to understand what makes reefs “Super”.
It is this scientific understanding that will provide the best chance to locate and save the reefs.
The short film Super Reefs: The Future of Coral tells the story of Anne Cohen’s science and is the first project produced under the auspices of the new Woods Hole Film Festival Film and Science Initiative. This film was produced in conjunction with Boston’s Northern Light Productions with funding from the Atlantic Donor Advised Fund.
Follow the Journey: The North Atlantic Right Whale Documentary (working title), feature documentary work-in-progress by Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth, Film-Truth Productions
Follow the Journey: The North Atlantic Right Whale Documentary is a feature-length documentary that follows the epic journey of endangered right whales from their calving grounds off of Florida and Georgia to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in Canada, woven with the stories of the researchers, rescuers, artists and advocates who uncover challenges that face the species and illuminate discoveries along the way.
To support the Film and Science Initiative, please contact us at info@woodsholefilmfestival.org for more information or Donate Here.
