From Nature:
New York’s Tribeca Film Festival wrapped up last weekend, after providing an eyeful of science-based films coming soon (maybe) to a theatre near you; and an earful of how Hollywood sees the role of science changing in the movies. The Tribeca fest — named after the neighbourhood where it is held (short for ‘Triangle Below Canal Street’, that famous avenue where a fake Rolex watch will cost you ten bucks and the jostling is free) — is the creation of actor Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal, started as a mechanism to bring vitality back to lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
But science nerds such as myself flock to it because of its partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, which spends a healthy chunk of money, in the words of its head Doron Weber, “to challenge leading artists in film theatre and television to create more realistic, more compelling and more entertaining stories about science and technology”. How can filmic depictions of scientists be both realistic and entertaining, when most science consists of long days of work and incremental advances? I went to the fest to find out (and to catch a glimpse of Christopher Walken).
My verdict? All in all, science on film still feels a bit awkward.
More here.