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Spring 2009 Science Documentary Film Series
All films will be screened beginning at 4:00PM each Wednesday
afternoon in Stevenson Lecture Hall (SC4327)
Take a break from your studies and see a film. Light refreshments served.
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February 18 - Supervolcano
This film will be introduced by Dr. Calvin Miller from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Description: Amidst the stunning wilderness of Yellowstone National Park, steam and hot water bubble and hiss from thousands of colorful, mineral-encrusted springs and vents. These hot springs, geysers and bubbling mud pools are all outward manifestations of a huge body of magma residing not far beneath the surface. It's a subterranean sea of molten lava that scientists are sure will burst through the Earth's crust – it's just a question of when. And if the resulting super-volcanic eruption is anything like the last one on earth – which plunged the world into darkness for six years, tipped us into the last Ice Age and reduced the human population to just 2,000 people we're in for one explosive ride. Discovery Communications Inc. Run Time: 105 minutes. http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/supervolcano.html |
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March 11 - Sludge This film will be introduced by Dr. Kaye Savage from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. (In the wake of the Harriman, TN sludge spill of December 22, 2008.) "...A stark and unsparing look into the horrendous disaster and its tendrils..." Description: Shortly after midnight on October 11, 2000, a massive storage pit of coal waste broke through an underground mine below, propelling 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River in Martin County, Kentucky. The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez and, according to the EPA, one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States. Appalshop. Run Time: 40 minutes. http://appalshop.org/sludge/ |
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April 1 - Mountain Mourning This film will be introduced by a member of LEAF: Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship, a faith-based group that is fighting mountain top removal in Tennessee. Filmmaker's Description: In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, a coal-mining process known as Mountaintop Removal is devastating God's creation. Demand for electricity overshadows weak environmental laws. Coal industry profits outweigh quality of life. As our oldest mountaintops vanish, the people are left behind. Having paid the highest price - they are abandoned in what is called "the sacrifice zone." Bonus short films: "Look What They've Done", "Keeper of the Mountains", "A Call to Action" and "Bringing Down the Mountains." (78 minutes total) 2006, BJ Gunmundsson. http://www.patchworkfilms.com/index.htm |
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April 22 (Reading Day) - Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives (2008) This film will be introduced by Dr. Robert Sherrer from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Description: For most of Mark Oliver Everett's life, things didn't add up. "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives" follows Mark, better known as E, the lead singer of the rock band EELS, across the country as he attempts to understand the fantastic possibility of parallel universes and unravel the story of his troubled family and the father he never really knew-iconoclastic quantum physicist Hugh Everett III. 2008 56 min. NOVA/BBC4 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/manyworlds/about.html |