A Sundance Panel Report

Over on NPR’s 13.7 blog, Barbara J. King reported on what she took away from the panel at Sundance entitled “The Art of Getting Science Right”. The discussants were Ting Wu, Mike Cahill, and myself, and Kerry Bishé moderated everything masterfully. (We also were the Sloan Jury, along with Shane Carruth, who was indisposed.) As you know from my writing here, I’ve long been advocating a lot for more focus on portraying the scientific process and the engagement and joy of science over worrying about getting every science detail right. This came up a lot in our conversation, and we all had some things to say about it that might interest you. Barbara has picked up on that theme and writes about it, with extensive quotes, in her piece that you can read here. (See my report on the jury process here.)

(Parenthetically, I should say that details are important, but if a filmmaker had to choose what to focus on (and they often do), those broader things – along with internal consistency – are far more important in my opinion. They do the job of getting your audience interested enough in the science and the scientists to go find out more after the movie… where they can then chase facts and details as much they want to.)

Enjoy!

-cvj

Bookmark the permalink.

18 Responses to A Sundance Panel Report

  1. Mark Peifer says:

    I’ll bet this was great. Ting Wu is an old friend from grad school days and just gave an amazing talk here that included some extremely innovative ways to portray her data.