Neal Hartman – Science-themed Film Festivals
Free online event, Thursday 3rd December, 12am
hosted by the GWW Centre
Dear All,
LLMVC’s George Washington Wilson Centre for Visual Culture would be delighted if you could join us for our next free online event ‘Science-themed Film Festivals’ by Neal Hartman on Thursday 3 December 12am.
If you would like to receive the Zoom link, please email Dr Casini (silvia.casini@abdn.ac.uk).
Neal Hartman will speak about the intersection of cinema and science, and in particular on science-themed film festivals. He will address artistic direction, festival positioning, and programming, as well as try to respond to the question, what is a “science film?” His experience comes from leading CineGlobe, the film festival at CERN, as well as the European Academy of Science Film, and from diverse collaborations with festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, with which he organised the first international hackathon on science storytelling. He will also address why he thinks that science film is undergoing such a period of popularity, and how science films can be made to connect more strongly with the public.
Bio: With a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in film directing from Westminster University, Neal worked as an engineer at CERN, the European Laboratory for High Energy Physics, for 18 years. He has been actively involved in science/art outreach since 2007, and when he co-founded CineGlobe, the International Film Festival at CERN, showcasing films of all types inspired by science and technology. He was director of production for TEDxCERN for five editions, and chairman of the World VR Forum in 2017. Neal has organised multiple events in virtual reality, and conducted a year of research into virtual reality at the Swiss Polytechnic University in Lausanne (EPFL). He is a founding member of the Foundation Board for the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) and co-founded the European Academy of Science Film (EURASF) with four other science film festivals. Since January 2020, Neal is the director of Science Gallery Venice, the Italian node of the International Science Gallery Network. With degrees in both engineering and film directing, his passions are equally shared between film, art and science.
Supported by Aberdeen City Council’s Creative Funding programme and the University of Aberdeen
Best wishes,
Dr Silvia Casini
Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture
Co-Director, GWW Centre for Visual Culture
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sll/disciplines/film/profiles/silvia.casini
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