Presented in partnership with OMSI
Science on Screen
is a popular nationwide program funded by the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to expand film and scientific literacy. This ongoing series will creatively pair screenings of classic, cult films, and documentaries with lively presentations by notable science and technology experts. Each film is used as a jumping-off point for the speaker to introduce current research or technological advances in a manner that engages popular culture audiences.
About the film:
Filmmaker Werner Herzog adds another real-life character to his growing pantheon of people who walk a fine line between visionary genius and madness in this documentary. Timothy Treadwell was a self-styled authority on bears who, starting in 1990, would spend as much time as possible each year in Alaska, camping out near a grizzly bear habitat. While Treadwell claimed to love the bears and felt as one with them, he had no formal training in their behavior, and while familiarizing himself with the creatures he would walk within a few feet of them with a video camera in hand. To many, Treadwell seemed part man of nature, part conjuror, and part self-promotion expert, but the part that guided his kinship with the bears failed him in 2003, when he and his girlfriend were killed in a grizzly attack. Treadwell shot hundreds of hours of footage of himself and the grizzlies, and Herzog has used this footage as the core of
Grizzly Man
, a documentary look at Treadwell’s life and death, while also including interviews with people who knew him, animal experts, and scientists. Acclaimed British guitarist Richard Thompson composed and performed the film’s musical score.