Uptown Film Center launches the second season of its Science on Screen® pop-up series, on Monday, October 5, 7pm, with Peter Weir’s sci-fi film, The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey and Laura Linney.
Science on Screen® is a nationwide initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that uses film to engage audiences with science, technology, and the questions they raise in our everyday lives. The series reflects Uptown Film Center’s commitment to science literacy and the kind of thoughtful, educational programming it plans to offer regularly when its permanent home opens. All screenings will take place at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at West 95th Street, west of Broadway
“What makes Science on Screen® so compelling is the opportunity to use very different kinds of films to explore questions that are increasingly relevant to our lives,” says Ira Deutchman, President, Uptown Film Center. “Through comedy, documentary and science-fiction satire, these films tackle subjects ranging from technology and surveillance to sustainable farming and the future of human reproduction. Together, they show how movies can entertain us while also challenging us to think more deeply about the world around us.”
The Truman Show explores surveillance, privacy and the increasingly blurred boundaries between technology, entertainment and everyday life. Guest speaker Professor Michael W. Morris, the author of Tribal (2024), spent his career studying how shared cultural codes and identities influence the way we think and act. He will address the question, “Who Gets to Decide What is Real?” in a pre-screening introduction, exploring what the film reveals about the invisible scripts that guide our lives, whether we notice them or not.
Next film in the series, on Monday, November 9, is the critically acclaimed documentary film, The Biggest Little Farm, which follows John and Molly Chester as they leave Los Angeles to transform 200 acres of depleted, drought-stricken land into a thriving and radically diverse farm. What begins as an idealistic dream of living in harmony with nature becomes a humbling exploration of biodiversity, resilience, and the delicate balance that sustains all living things. Guest Speaker to be announced.
The last film in the series is Sophie Barthes’ witty 2023 indie film, The Pod Generation, Monday, December 14. The film follows a New York couple (Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor) who contemplate growing their baby in a detachable artificial womb, or “pod,” provided by a powerful tech company. Dr. Elizabeth Reis has taught classes on medical ethics, gender and bioethics, and reproductive technologies. She is the author of Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex (2009), published in an expanded second edition in 2021; Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England.
The Science on Screen series is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) in partnership with the NY City Council and the office of New York City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu and Speaker Julie Menin.
Tickets are $7/adults, $5 for seniors and students, plus a $5 facility fee (at check-out). All screenings take place at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at West 95th Street, west of Broadway.