Hunt for the Oldest DNA, feature documentary by Niobe Thompson, Canada 2024, 82 mins.

For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA but life's genetic blueprint is incredibly fragile, and researchers have struggled to find DNA in fossils that could survive millions of years. Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea to look for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue – but in dirt. Join the hunt as scientists decipher the oldest DNA ever found and reveal for the first time the genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in a warm, lush Arctic. You can watch the film trailer here.

The program will be followed by a conversation with John Rubin, Executive Producer, Hunt for the Oldest DNA, and Tina Warriner, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.

December 3, 2024
6-8pm
$15 General Admission, $5 MIT ID Holders

Counted Out by Vicki Abeles, feature documentary, USA, 2024, 86 mins.

In the 21st century, our world is dominated by technology, data, and algorithms, yet we maintain the persistent myth that not everyone is a "math person." Can changing our minds about math revolutionize who has power —and who is counted out?

Through a mosaic of personal stories, Counted Out shows what's at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don't consider ourselves "math people?" Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where anyone can understand the math that undergirds our society — and can help shape it. The film is dedicated to Bob Moses, the civil rights leader and MacArthur genius who saw math access as the civil rights issue of our time, and whose work we follow in some of the last filmed interviews of his life.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion and audience conversation featuring film director Vicki Abeles and local math literacy professionals.

$15 General Public
$5 for MIT ID holders

This program has sold out. If you are still interested in attending a Woods Hole Film Festival screening, please consider joining us on December 3 where we will screen Hunt for the Oldest DNA.

Feature documentary by Jacob Patrick, USA, 2023, 75 minutes. Country of filming: France, Italy, US Language: English, Italian

Lino Tagliapietra began his journey with glassblowing at the age of 11 as a factory worker in Murano, Italy. Now at 88, he prepares for his final hot shop session while grappling with age, identity, and the struggle of watching his protégés continue his legacy as his famed career comes to a close.

A Q&A with filmmaker Jacob Patrick will follow the screening. The screening will be introduced by MIT Professor of Computer Science Erik Demaine and MIT Instructor and Artistic Director of the Glass Lab Peter Houk. Co-presented by the MIT Glass Lab

October 26
6-8pm
$15 General Admission, $5 for MIT ID Holders

This program has sold out.

In a time of rising seas and intensifying storms, one of the world’s wealthiest, most-educated cities, Boston, Massachusetts, made a fateful decision to spend billions of dollars erecting a new district along its coast — on landfill, at sea level. Unlike other places imperiled by climate change, this neighborhood of glass towers housing some of the world’s largest companies was built well after scientists began warning of the threats, including many at its own renowned universities. The city, which already has more high-tide flooding than nearly any other in the United States, called its new quarter the Innovation District. But with seas rising inexorably, and at an accelerating rate, others are calling the neighborhood by a different name: Inundation District.

A panel discussion with Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning David Hsu, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism Miho Mazereeuw, and filmmaker David Abel will follow the screening.

$15 General Public
$5 for MIT ID holders

This event is sold out.

IN THE WHALE is a feature-length film about arguably the greatest fish story ever told, though this one is true. It's the account of a man who survived to tell the tale of being swallowed by a whale, and what happened after being spit out.

In the shark-filled waters off Cape Cod, Michael Packard has long tempted fate. For several months a year, Packard and his longtime mate, Josiah Mayo, cast off nearly every morning around dawn and navigate through the half-light to their diving grounds off Provincetown, the idiosyncratic, isolated community where they grew up at the tip of the Cape. Packard buckles on his scuba tank and plunges into the cold waters to hunt on the seafloor.

As the region’s last-remaining commercial lobster diver, the 57-year-old father has had his share of harrowing experiences, which include close encounters with great whites, nearly drowning, and having to pull up the body of a fellow diver. He even survived a plane crash in the jungles of Costa Rica, where he ran a charter fishing business. But what happened to him on a routine dive during a clear June morning was something he never imagined possible, and many around the world refused to believe.

In an experience of biblical proportions, Packard was engulfed by a humpback whale, caught in the watery cavity of its massive mouth. After some 30 seconds of a pitch-black captivity, in which he expected to die, he was spit out, fins first, to the surface, where Mayo and another fisherman rescued him.

The publicity was similarly dizzying for the reclusive fisherman, whose survival story spread around the world in news dispatches. But what came after the limelight dimmed was even more significant for Packard.

A Q&A with David Abel, Director of In the Whale, will follow the screening.

$15 General Public
$5 for MIT ID holders

Seating is limited. Pre-registration strongly suggested.