Visit the Sundance Film Festival and expand your filmmaking skills with this series featuring the most compelling and timely talks and panels from recent Festivals.

That the first image of a black hole was achieved through a global network of synchronized radio observatories shows what humans can accomplish when we come together across disciplines. Just like the world of independent film, science and technology are propelled by collaboration, cooperation and the breaking of barriers. In this panel from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on the intersection of science and media, scientists Dr. Galit Alter, Jenna Levin and Leland Melvin and filmmakers Scott Z. Burns (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, CONTAGION) and Kath Lingenfelter (THE LEFTOVERS, HOUSE, M.D.) explore, through the lens of film and television, what that cooperation means for human knowledge and our mutual survival. 

This panel was originally titled “The Big Conversation: Come Together.”

Dr. Galit Alter
Panelist
Dr. Galit Alter is a professor of medicine at MIT, Harvard, and the Ragon Institute of MGH, and is the co-director of the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research. She has developed a unique suite of functional antibody profiling assays, deemed systems serology, that can be used to define humoral immune responses to a number of infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, and to develop therapeutics to cure and control such diseases. more...
Leland Melvin
Panelist
Perseverance and passion led Leland Melvin from the NFL to NASA. Armed with science and engineering degrees, he traveled off-planet twice on Space Shuttle Atlantis to help build the International Space Station. He then led NASA’s education programs and co-chaired the White House's Federal Coordination in STEM Education Task Force. After 24 years with NASA as a researcher, astronaut, and senior leader, he shares his life story to help inspire the next generation of STEAM Explorers. more...
Scott Z Burns
Panelist
Scott Z. Burns is a screenwriter, director, producer, and playwright. Burns produced An Inconvenient Truth, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, and Sea of Shadows. His writing credits include The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!, Contagion, Side Effects, and The Laundromat. As a director, his credits include Pu-239 and The Report. Burns’s play The Library was produced at The Public Theater. Burns is an advisor at the Sundance Institute and a member of the National Resources Defense Council’s Leadership Committee. more...
Kath Lingenfelter
Panelist
Kath Lingenfelter is a screenwriter based in Los Angeles. Her television credits include the critically acclaimed shows Westworld and The Leftovers as well as House, M.D., which was the most-watched TV drama in the world during its run. Lingenfelter has frequently collaborated with the Science & Entertainment Exchange, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, appearing on panels and giving keynotes on the challenges and benefits of demanding credible science in entertainment. more...
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