Salina will be among a handful of cities across the country to host “Science on the Screen” on the big screen. The Salina Art Center Cinema is again this year a “Science on Screen” grantee.
Through the program, participating organizations will use one of the nation’s favorite pastimes—going to the movies—to promote public understanding of science.
The Cinema in Salina will run four “Science on Screen” events between March 25 and April 15. These free Monday night events creatively pair screenings of 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. T
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.
“Science on Screen” events at Salina Art Center Cinema in 2019 include:
- Monday, March 25, 2019 at 5:30pm Salina Art Center Cinema kicks off National Science on Screen week with a special presentation of Searching (2018) followed at 7:20pm by guest speaker Sergeant Jeffery D. Swanson from the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Sergeant Swanson will lead a discussion exploring the ways in which computer forensics are being used to investigate crime and what we can all do to stay safer.
- Monday, April 1, 2019 at 5:30, Beyond the Brink (2018), a documentary, dives deep into the intricacies of the water and food nexus as it highlights the evolving implications on a National Security threat through the lens of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Following the film, James J. Butler, Jr. Senior Scientist, Section Chief, Geohydrology with the Kansas Geological Survey will discuss Kansas’ invisible water crisis and the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest underground sources of freshwater in the world.
- Monday April 8, 2019 at 5:30pm Robot & Frank (2012), a film set in the near future. An ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team. But can humans and machines truly be friends? After the film, join K-State Polytechnic Computer Systems Professors Bill Genereux, Tom Mertz, Troy Harding, Tim Bower and Michael Oetken in a discussion about the impact of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence on society.
- Monday, April 15, 2019 – To Dust (2018). Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay. As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert, a local community college biology professor, the two embark on a darkly comic and increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld. Then enjoy a discussion with Dr. Philip S. Meckley, Department of Religion and Philosophy at Kansas Wesleyan University as we discuss religious and philosophical ideas about what happens to the human body after death. He will be looking at various topics like death consciousness, the religious and social status of the human corpse, and the loss of capacity for human experience.
Since launching the national Science on Screen grant in 2011, the Sloan Foundation and the Coolidge have awarded a total of 201 Science on Screen grants to 82 independent theaters nationwide, including 36 this year.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America’s most recent Theatrical and Home Entertainment Market Environment Report, more than three-quarters of the population of the U.S. and Canada over the age of 2—some 263 million people—attended a movie in 2017, purchasing an average of 4.7 tickets over the course of the year. Science on Screen aims to spark a love of science, technology, and engineering in America’s movie-goers by giving them a taste of scientific discovery along with their popcorn.
