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The beloved Brookline Coolidge Corner Theater has been serving audiences since 1933. Over its 89 years, moviegoers have laughed, cried and fallen in love from those seats—so much so that it’s widely considered one of New England’s most cherished landmarks.
But the Coolidge is more than just a movie theater. It features a variety of well-known original signature shows, such as the hugely popular “Screen Science,” launched in 2005, which combines screenings of classic cult science fiction and documentaries with exciting talks by science and technology experts. Whether it’s the function of the amygdala in the zombie’s brain in “Night of the Living Dead,” or the development of epidemiology since “Andromeda,” audiences leave Coolidge with a higher degree of cinematic and scientific literacy.
Beth Gilligan, associate director of Coolidge Corner Theater, joins All circumstances are considered Host Arun Rath discusses interesting – and sometimes unconventional – pairings in theater. This transcript has been lightly edited.
Alan Russ: So this project has been going on for a while. Do you remember what was the impetus for it in the first place?
Beth Gilligan: The Science on Screen program started way back in 2005 at the Coolidge Corner Theater, before I was there. I joined the theater in 2009. It was a local entrepreneur and investor named Richard Anders who initially approached the theater crew about creating the series. I think this idea comes from the fact that Boston has so much incredible scientific talent. It’s a great way to get into that community and educate the public about science and technology. In 2011, we began a national rollout of the collection with support from the Alfred Sloan Foundation. So we actually re-licensed to arthouse cinemas all over the country, and it’s grown tremendously. But it really started with that original idea in 2005.
Russ: At this point, everything you talk about, especially since 2011, it’s pretty much an institution, isn’t it?
Gilligan: Yes Yes. We are really proud of it. We’ve been able to distribute over 350 grants to 108 movie theaters across the country. We’ve been to 42 states. This year we have new recipients in Oxford, Mississippi, Fort Lauderdale, Taos, New Mexico. The basic idea is that we get funding from the Alfred Sloan Foundation, and in turn, we give grants to different communities so they can start and sustain their own “science on screen” projects.
I think the beauty of this series is, I mean, in Boston, we’re so lucky. We have Nobel laureates on the street. But I think there are also very talented high school chemistry teachers who might be able to give really good presentations. There’s so much local talent in different communities across America, and being able to tap into that in a fun and accessible way, we just love how much it’s grown and seeing different theaters make it their own.
Russ: What are some of the funnier screenings and guests at some other theater screenings?
Gilligan: Oh my gosh, there are so many. I mean, it’s really fun. I remember a theater in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. They showed a documentary, I forget the name of it, but they brought in live reindeer for the demonstration. I know at the Tampa theater they did a screening around Jaws and they hired a local shark expert and they did some hands-on stuff in the lobby — something to do with the climate and the fires going on in California. So everyone’s adapting to what’s going on in their area, which is good.
Russ: What was your process for selecting films and guest pairings at Coolidge?
Gilligan: You know, for a series about science, it’s not science. It’s a combination, and sometimes I’ll read an article about someone who’s doing really interesting research. Other times, there’s a movie that I thought was great to see on the big screen, like The Grapes of Wrath, that I don’t think we’ve seen in a long time. The cinematography is great. It’s a John Ford movie from 1940, and I was like, well, is there a scientific angle there? Of course I thought of the drought. Before the screening, we had environmentalist Bill McKibben give a great talk. So sometimes it’s people’s recommendations for speakers, sometimes it’s more topical. I know that as pandemics increasingly dominated the headlines in early 2020, we had people talking about diseases, pandemics, and contagions. Climate change is a big topic these days. It does vary, but it’s a really interesting series that goes in different directions.
I think one of the great things about it is that we don’t show traditional science films all the time. I think, you know, if we’re going to show a nature documentary or something about outer space, you’re pretty much preaching to the choir. What we try to do is have these unexpected pairings, like when you talk about zombie brains, amygdala and Night of the Living Dead, or like “airplanes,” we have an MIT for aeronautics, an astrophysics Scientists Discuss Self-Pilot Technology. We had someone from MIT Driverless presenting an outdoor screening of “Fast Five,” considered by many to be the pinnacle of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, and she talked about the future of driverless racing. So you get a wider audience and I think it’s also interesting for the speakers because in many cases they’re used to speaking at academic conferences in front of their peers. A lot of them just love the opportunity to speak in front of a wider audience and invite their family and friends. So it was really interesting to watch that.
“I think one of the great things about it is that we’re not showing traditional science films all the time.”
—Beth Gilligan, Deputy Director, Coolidge Corner Theater
Russ: Excellent. Unconventional pairings really seem to work the most. I mean, honestly, I’m still thinking about “Grapes of Wrath” As the story of climate change refugees, it does. So tell us about some of the upcoming things that interest you the most.
Gilligan: Tonight, Monday, December 12th, Dr. Grant Tremblay, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, will tell us about the multiverse associated with the movie “All at the Same Time,” which is a great arthouse movie and the blockbuster of the year. It’s a really fun crazy movie, the Daniels movie starring Michelle Yeoh, it’s hard to describe. It’s one of our most successful productions at The Coolidge this year, and it’s unbelievable. It’s really brought the audience back after we’ve been away from the pandemic for a long time. So just to be able to give it an “science on screen” spin. We’re seeing a lot of ticket sales and excitement around it.
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