SCIENCE ON THE SILVER SCREEN

There is a renewed interest in raising the profile of science in the filmmaking industry but a relative lack of venues to showcase this type of material. Recognizing this, the organizers of the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival have initiated the biannual Science Media Awards, held most recently in September 2014 in Boston.

The goal of the festival is to recognize the best offerings in the range of internationally available science film–making. Of the films on show at this year’s gathering—and, as a judge, I saw them all—some were exquisite and some distinctly under par, but a few stood out as exceptional. Jabbed: Love, Fear and Vaccines (Genepool Productions) is one in the exceptional category.

This film explores the science behind vaccinations and investigates the costs of opting out. What made the film stand out was how the producer, Sonya Pemberton, was able to earn the trust of families afflicted by both the consequences of vaccination and of infection.

The cultivation of these relationships yielded extraordinary and honest insights into individual lives and decisions, as well as revealing the great public good that vaccines bring. For its courageous and balanced consideration of an emotionally charged topic, Jabbed was recognized as the Best Medical Sciences Program.

Another bold analysis of a common, but underappreciated, medical problem was presented by student filmmaker Ingrid Pfau in her debut production, Seizing the Unrecorded . Using sound, clever cinematography, and animation, she shows what it might feel like to experience seizures.

Pfau, who herself suffers from epilepsy, uses her own experiences, as well as those of several others whom she meets during the course of her treatment, to show the debilitating range of symptoms suffered by individuals with this disease, from the physical to the emotional.

Pfau was recognized as the Best Student and Emerging Filmmaker for this personal and moving film, completed as part of her thesis project at Montana State University.

A crowd favorite, and the ultimate winner of the Best of Festival award (1), the film Particle Fever (PF Productions, LLC, and Anthos Media, LLC) presents the story of the discovery of the Higgs boson—the so-called “God particle”—at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Featuring a cast of charismatic scientists, a big question (does this fundamental particle really exist?), high emotion, near disaster (the equipment failed early on, halting experiments for more than a year), and crisp editing, this film hit all of the right notes.

A short series of films called Your Inner Fish (Tangled Bank Studios and Windfall Films, for PBS) was recognized as the Best Limited Series. Featuring the anatomist Neil Shubin, the series uses fossils, genetics, and embryonic data to reveal clues about our ancient ancestors that are hidden in our bodies.

In Miracles of Nature: Super-Bodies (Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbH), Richard Hammond (of Top Gear fame ) lends his characteristic enthusiasm to an exploration of extraordinary animal abilities that have inspired unlikely inventions—for example, a laser-based navigation technology inspired by the whiskers of the harbor seal.

Throughout the program, Hammond demonstrates that he is willing to literally throw himself into grand-scale demonstrations of the principles being discussed. Gamely working with bizarre props in exotic locations, Hammond stole the award for Best Hosted or Presenter-led Program.

The winner of the Best Technological Sciences Program, Zeppelin Terror Attack (Windfall Films, Ltd., for NOVA/WGBH, Channel 4, and National Geographic Channel) tells the harrowing tale of the technological arms race that unfolded during World War I as Britain scrambled to neutralize the enormous German aircraft. Although the technology was historical, the science was clear and precisely presented. Besides, what’s not to like about a man standing in a field with an airship balanced on his head?

Featuring a glittering cast of Hollywood heavyweights and top journalists, the Showtime documentary series Years of Living Dangerously (Roaring Fork Films) received a special consideration for its confrontational examination of the growing consequences of anthropogenic climate warming. Many more films won many more awards, and many others were close contenders for accolades, but they cannot all be described here.