BEATING DARWIN TO THE GALAPAGOS: SCIENTISTS ON THE HIGH SEAS
SCREENING + CONVERSATION
Peter Weir’s adventurous, Oscar-winning Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) takes audiences aboard the HMS Surprise, an English naval vessel operating during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. Nominated for 10 Oscars (it won two, including Best cinematography), the gorgeous films stars Russell Crowe as the “thorny and hard to eradicate” Captain Jack Aubrey and Paul Bettany as his best friend., the ship’s doctor and “fighting scientist” Stephen Maturin, who find themselves at the crossroads of science and history when forced to hide from a French privateer on the Galapagos Islands, 30 years before Charles Darwin would arrive there and challenge the scientific community’s understanding of the natural world. Director: Peter Weir (UK 2003) 120 min.
There will be a pre-show presentation and post-film conversation with Dr. Matthew James, Ph. D. author of Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin. A fellow of the California Academy of Scientists, James is a retired professor of Geology and Paleontology at Sonoma State University. He has been studying the Galapagos Islands for over 30 years.
SUNDAY, MAY 21 • 1:00
$9.75 Matinee | $9.75 Seniors & Youth | $7.75 CAFILM members
This presentation is part of SCIENCE ON SCREEN®, a series pairing film screenings with lively scientific discussions – an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.