About the Fellowship
The Future of Science Film Fellowship is a program for emerging filmmakers to develop new documentaries about efforts to make science more equitable and inclusive. This project builds on the success of the feature documentary Picture a Scientist, which chronicled stories of bias, discrimination and harassment against women scientists. Our goal now is to launch a new set of films that will amplify the conversation about race, equity and inclusion in science, and spark change in the scientific community.
In this first phase, we selected three emerging filmmakers and will work with them to develop their films. A stipend of $10,000 will be provided, and fellows will participate in a 8-week workshop including mentorship and access to our research team to support story development. The outcome will be professional pitch decks that together we will use to seek major funding for the second phase of the Fellowship.
Throughout the entire process, our emphasis will be on providing access and opportunity for storytellers from historically marginalized communities while creating powerful new films about combating racism in science. The outcome of this effort will not only be a powerful set of unique stories about the future of science, but also a constellation of meaningful relationships among future science storytellers.
Since the release of Picture a Scientist, the film team has been researching new storylines about active attempts to remake the culture of science. Themes that have emerged during this early research include: belonging and identity; bringing one’s whole self to science and education; changing the culture of science by bringing knowledge, interests, and social structures from students’ own cultural backgrounds; students connecting with their traditions within their education after generations of stripping education of tradition; the expectations of mainstream culture that BIPOC students will not excel; how science, knowledge, and education are defined, and questioning these assumptions; and investing in communities and solving local problems.
The Executive Producers for this new project — scientist and science communication expert Dr. Mónica Feliú-Mójer, filmmaker and Columbia journalism professor Duy Linh Tu, and Picture a Scientist co-director Ian Cheney — will guide the process and oversee the business aspects of the productions. The goal is to empower authorship and inspire the creative process for the directors. The initial phase of the fellowship is sponsored by the Science Communication Lab, and supported by the Wonder Collaborative (an initiative of the Science Communication Lab) and Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
