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Top Reasons You'd Be A Fool To Miss the Imagine Science Film Festival

Science has a public relations problem, a lot of them really. Science is everywhere in our lives; we spend a whole lot of money on it (but hardly enough); research is changing our day-to-day world faster and more than any time in history, from smaller...

Science has a public relations problem, a lot of them really. Science is everywhere in our lives; we spend a whole lot of money on it (but hardly enough); research is changing our day-to-day world faster and more than any time in history, from smaller and faster computers to medicine straight out of sci-fi to clean energy. Yet science remains a kinda mythical place for a lot of people. A lot of the time it's just not very good at explaining itself, even with simple concepts; just as much it's distorted by lazy media, politics, and money.

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It's no huge stretch to say that a whole lot of the images in your head regarding science have their seeds in film or television. That's a lot of brutal stereotypes of mad scientists, doomsday science, private enclaves of super-intellectuals full of smudged blackboards covered in impenetrable math. Last year, Imagine Science Film Festival founder Alexis Gambis likened film to a "dangerous weapon" in a Motherboard interview. "You don't have to destroy the science to make it exciting," he told me. "There's so many stereotypes and misconceptions about what a laboratory looks like or what a scientist does on a daily basis."

This is where the festival began, in these communications rifts. "I felt the urge to become a voice in that, and try to rectify that," Gambis said. "That's where the film series began, and that led to me contacting various venues around town for a citywide festival in 2008." It returns for its fourth year beginning Friday.

"The goal was more than a festival but a community where scientists can engage, collaborate, and show films—and that's sort of the idea behind Imagine Science," Gambis explained. "It's not about science per say, but it's about people, places, relationships, mysteries, music videos, and all that. Science always interweaves into the story, so it's almost like swallowing a pill. We try to make something people can relate to, but they're also learning about science."

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This year's fest is huge: 80 films from 15 different countries; avant-garde shorts, documentaries, footage from lab experiments; panel discussions; all taking place over six days starting Friday. We're excited to say that Motherboard's The Thorium Dream is among those 80, showing on Saturday at 8pm at Anthology Film Archives. Don't miss, of course. But beyond that, here's five more films celebrating the intersection of science and imagination we're looking forward to. We tried to pick five ISFF flicks that give some idea of how big of a net "great movies presenting science correctly" winds up being: weirdo stop-motion shorts, big indie features, artful docs, and it goes on. Oh, and Flatliners. Get your tickets and showtimes at the ISFF website.

"Yuri Lennon's Landing on Alpha46"

Yuri Lennon's landed on the Jupiter moon of Alpha46 with a mission to track down a strange signal broadcast. He does easily enough, but no one — from astrobiologists to sci-fi deep-thinkers — should be able to predict the result. It's terrifying in a totally absurd way and also kinda funny and sweet.

Dir. Anthony Vouardoux, 14 min., Germany

"Time Freak"

If you could go back into your past and right some wrongs, what if you just wound up micromanaging every little detail of history. And still coming up with an unsatisfactory result because, maybe just maybe, present-you is still as much of an asshole as post-you.

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Dir: Andrew Bowler, 11 min., United States

"The Thorium Dream"

Thorium sounds like an energy alchemists' dream. But it's a very real technology, tested in the 1960s and 70s, and subsequently lost in the military-industrial shuffle of nuclear technologies. Motherboard met some of the leaders of the movement to find out what the heck thorium is — and how they plan to crowd-source the dream into reality, in the face of industrial inertia and post-Fukashima fear. 8pm at Anthology Film Archives

Dir: Alex Pasternack, Hugo Perez, 26 min, United States

Flatliners

Why am I so excited to watch Flatliners again? One, it turns out I don't remember it all that well besides it scaring the shit out of me as a kid. And, two, like most of us I don't think I'd ever given a whole lot of deep thought to the medicine of intentionally dying and coming back to life. "Today is a good day to die." Indeed.

Dir. Joel Schumacher, 115 minutes, United States

"Telegraphics"

This is mostly just really cool to look at. Playing somewhat on the idea of 3D printing, this short mock-informational film tells the story of the Telegraphics revolution, a process that allows real-world materials to be recreated using Telegraphics materials that can be manipulated as freely as if they were wet paint on a canvas or an auto-CAD model on a computer screen. So, while everything is real, it's hardly stable or permanent and subject to the whims of its owner/creator.

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Dir. Antoine Delacharlery, Léopold Parent, Lena Schneider, and Thomas Thibault, 7 minutes, France

TELEGRAPHICS TEASER from Telegraphics on Vimeo.

Mr. Nobody

First, it's good to see Jared Leto starring in a movie again rather than flogging his crappy band. Second, the story of living too far into the future to be able to keep you past intact seems potentially great—and sad. And a mindfuck. Motherboard editor Alex Pasternack is moderating a panel after the film to discuss topics like memory, and time warps and immortality.

Dir Jaco Van Dormael, 155 minutes, Belgium

Again, tickets and showtimes and more at the ISFF website.

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.