Upcoming Events
Picture a Scientist Screening and Discussion with Filmmakers
Nov 4, 2021, 7:00 - 9:30 PM
JC Cinema and simultaneous Zoom
Registration will be available soon.
A part of Mason's Visiting Filmmakers Series, the College of Science and Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact are pleased to support this special screening of Picture a Scientist.
Picture a Scientist chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. Biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring lead viewers on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, ranging from brutal harassment to years of subtle slights. Along the way, from cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, we encounter scientific luminaries - including social scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists - who provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all.
Picture a Scientist was an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film’s virtual theatrical run reached 47 theaters across the USA in June 2020, and raised money for two organizations advancing women of color in STEM.
Hosted Aurali Dade, Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Research Officer at George Mason University, this event will feature a screening of the film followed by discussion with the filmmakers. All interested Mason students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend.
If you are unable to attend our in-person screening on November 4, 2021, you can watch the film on Netflix and attend the Q&A virtually.
Mason community members can see the film for free here, using your Mason ID: PICTURE A SCIENTIST.
Director/Producer Ian Cheney is an Emmy-nominated & Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker. He has completed ten feature documentaries, including King Corn (2007), The Greening of Southie (2008), The City Dark (2011), The Search for General Tso (2014), Bluespace (2015), The Most Unknown (2018), The Emoji Story (2019), Thirteen Ways (2019), and The Long Coast (2020). He received bachelor’s & master’s degrees from Yale University, and an MFA in Film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A former MacDowell Fellow & Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, he lives in Maine.
Director/Producer Sharon Shattuck is an Emmy-nominated documentary film director and podcast host. Her feature debut, From This Day Forward, broadcast nationally on POV (PBS) in 2016 and was a New York Times Critic's Pick. She's the co-host of the podcast Conviction: American Panic from Gimlet/Spotify, and the co-creator of the New York Times Op-Docs science series "Animated Life." Her work has appeared on PBS, National Geographic Channel, Netflix, Slate, Vice, The New York Times, The Atlantic, ProPublica, Spotify, and Radiolab. She has degrees in forest ecology and journalism.