WHEN it comes to public exposure, alas, the world of scientific thinking in this country is sorely neglected. And when it comes to funding, scientists often struggle even more than artists.
To be called “Up Stream,” it confronts the huge problem that though the public is bombarded with information about climate change, genetically modified foods, vaccination and evolution there’s a huge large gap has opened up between what science is telling us and the political and social responses.
And the answer obviously isn’t to bombard people with information or try to make them think like scientists.
“Up Stream” document how and why people sit where they do on these issues, travelling with leading climate researchers through rural and regional Australia and listening to the concerns, opinions and questions of Australia’s rural and regional communities.
“Through this film we want to voice the need to do things differently and show alternative approaches to talk about these contentious issues,” they say.
The three film-makers are well qualified to set up the key questions.
Director Daniel Oscar Hunter is a zoologist and filmmaker from Melbourne, who grew up onVictoria’s coastline, completed a zoology degree from the Universityof Melbourne and a Masters in Natural History Filmmaking, later working in Brazil as part of the documentary team on the “Black Jaguar” project.
Dr. Will Grant is a talker, writer, thinker and reader at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU and Luke Menzies is a PhD researcher looking into improving the communication of complex environmental problems at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU.
They’re looking for funding and support via the crowd-funding site Pozible, to help with animation, editing, musical composition, voiceovers and the premiere.
When last I checked, they’d reached 84 per cent of the desired $10,000, and have just 10 days left to get to 100 per cent. To chip in and help them achieve their goal by Thursday September 13, visit http://pozible.com/upstream
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