Coolidge Corner Theatre & The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Name 2022−23 Science On Screen Grant Recipients

Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation named the 2022−23 recipients of their nationwide Science on Screen grant program this week, awarding grants totaling $245,000 to 40 independent cinemas, museums, and community groups with film programs.

Each organization will receive up to $8,500 to create and present three or more Science on Screen events, which pair expert-led discussions of scientific topics with screenings of feature and documentary films. At least one of the films shown by grantees must be a past recipient of the annual Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize or a Sloan Development Grant.

Since partnering with Sloan in 2011, the Coolidge has awarded over $2.5 million in grants to 108 film and science-focused organizations in 42 states across the country.

Science on Screen features classic, cult, and documentary films provocatively matched with presentations by experts who discuss scientific, technological, or medical issues raised by each film. The Coolidge/Sloan Foundation nationwide Science on Screen partnership seeks to inspire in theater-goers an increased appreciation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as compelling enterprises and vital elements of a broad understanding of human culture and current events.

Over the past 11 seasons, grantees have sold more than 150,000 tickets to over 1,140 Science on Screen events (including free tickets offered by many grantees to their Science on Screen series). Those events have featured presentations by hundreds of scientists, doctors, teachers & professors, farmers, journalists, and more, including at least five Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, ten astronauts, and other luminaries including autism activist Temple Grandin; outed CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson; surgeon and writer Dr. Atul Gawande; environmentalist Bill McKibben; geneticist George Church; and former Twitter chief media scientist Deb Roy.

Highlights from the most recent season include:

● Before a screening of the Oscar-winning film CODA, Dr. Melanie Gilbert of the UCSF Sound and Music Perception Lab took audience members on a journey deep into sound and silence, exploring the adaptive power of the brain and the impact technological advances can have on individuals with hearing loss. (Cameo Cinema, St. Helena, CA)

● John Waters' hilarious '80s melodrama Polyester, presented in its original ODORAMA (all audience members were given a scratch-and-sniff card for the ultimate fragrant film experience), was preceded by an introduction by biological anthropologist Dr. Eva Garrett, who discussed how our sense of smell evolved. (Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA)

● Mars 2050: Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic Total Recall got the Science on Screen treatment, with an introduction by theoretical physicist, astronomer, and University of Missouri professor Sergei Kopeikin. (Ragtag Cinema, Columbia, MO)

● 16-year-old Gitanjali Rao was named TIME Magazine's Kid of the Year in 2020 and she's already an accomplished scientist on a mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve problems all over the world. New York International Children's Film Festival featured Gitanjali as a speaker before their Girls' POV short film program. (NYICFF, New York, NY)

● Preceding Kinsey, Dr. Jessica Hille, gender and sexuality scholar and the Assistant Director for Education at the Kinsey Institute, provided insight into the man behind the character we see on screen, shared how his work continues to be hugely impactful today, and explained how science-backed study, combined with listening, learning, and research, can be very sexy indeed. (Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL)

"We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Coolidge Corner Theatre to support the Science on Screen program," said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the 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 such as Theater of Thought, Picture a Scientist, and How to Survive a Pandemic and bringing attention to urgent contemporary issues."

Science on Screen was initially conceived and established in 2005 for Coolidge Corner Theatre

audiences in greater Boston, which boasts one of the nation's largest populations of life and

physical scientists. In 2011, the Sloan Foundation partnered with the theatre to take Science on

Screen nationwide and to make it an integral part of its coast-to-coast film program. To date, the Sloan Foundation has awarded the Coolidge more than $4 million to support the program, including the creation of a website (scienceonscreen.org) where information on these programs and archived videos of the speakers' presentations are available to the public.

Science on Screen grant recipients are chosen based on the need for science-related

programming in their community, the strength of their proposed Science on Screen programs,

the success of past Science on Screen programs (for returning grantees), and their location.

All of these grant recipients-which span 42 states from coast to coast-play a significant role in the cultural life of their communities, with successful track records of building strong community partnerships and producing creative, thought-provoking film programs that both educate and entertain audiences.

The 2022−23 Science on Screen grantees include seven first-time participants:

● Block Museum of Art (Northwestern University), Evanston, Ill.

● Des Moines Film / Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, Iowa

● Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, Kan.

● Museum of Discovery and Science, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

● OxFilm, Oxford, Miss.

● Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, N.Y.

● Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, N.M.

Grantees returning to Science on Screen in 2022−23 are:

● Amherst Cinema, Amherst, Mass.

● Arena Theater, Port Arena, Calif.

● Arkansas Cinema Society, Little Rock, Ark.

● Art House Billings, Billings, Mont.

● Athens Ciné, Athens, Ga.

● Austin Film Society, Austin, Texas

● Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, Tenn.

● California Film Institute, San Rafael, Calif.

● Cameo Cinema, St. Helena, Calif.

● Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, N.Y.

● Cinema Detroit, Detroit, Mich.

● County Theater, Doylestown, Penn.

● Enzian Theater, Maitland, Fla.

● Film Streams, Omaha, Neb.

● FilmScene, Iowa City, Iowa

● Frida Cinema, Santa Ana, Calif.

● Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, Ill.

● Grand Cinema, Tacoma, Wash.

● JUMP / Gold Town Theater, Juneau, Alaska

● The Loft Cinema, Tucson, Ariz.

● Martha's Vineyard Film Society, Vineyard Haven, Mass.

● Media Arts Center San Diego, San Diego, Calif.

● Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Mich.

● Montclair Film, Montclair, N.J.

● New York International Children's Film Festival, New York, N.Y.

● Philadelphia Film Society, Philadelphia, Penn.

● Ragtag Cinema, Columbia, Mo.

● Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn.

● Rosendale Theatre, Rosendale, N.Y.

● Roxy Theater, Missoula, Mont.

● Salina Art Center, Salina, Kan.

● Tull Family Theater, Sewickley, Penn.

● Willcox Theater, Willcox, Ariz.

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. 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. The Program has supported over 750 film projects 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 Werner Herzog's Theater of Thought, David France's How to Survive a Pandemic, 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 award recognition to stand out films such as Don't Look Up, After Yang, Linoleum, Son of Monarchs, Ammonite, The Aeronauts, Searching, The Martian, First Man and Hidden Figures.

The Foundation has an active theater program and commissions about twenty science plays each year from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The National Theatre in London, while supporting select productions across the country and abroad. Recent grants from Sloan's Theater Program have supported Anchuli Felicia King's Golden Shield, Mark Rylance's Semmelweis, Sam Chanse's what you are now, Charly Evon Simpson's Behind the Sheet, Lucy Kirkwood's Mosquitoes, Chiara Atik's Bump, Nick Payne's Constellations, Lucas Hnath's Isaac's Eye, Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, David Auburn's Proof, and Bess Wohl's Continuity. 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 scheduled for release by director Christopher Nolan in July 2023.

For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, visit sloan.org.

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, Shakespeare Reimagined, and weekend kids' programs. The Coolidge has won numerous awards and honors for its creative programming. For more information, visit coolidge.org.

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