Creationists Take Their Fight To The Big Screen
US Row Forces Southern Imax Cinemas To Shun Films On Evolution
By Robin McKie
Science Editor
The Observer -- UK
3-20-5
They are the epitome of safe family entertainment, renowned
for lavish animations, exquisitely filmed scenes of natural
grandeur and utterly tame scripts. But Imax films have
suddenly found themselves catapulted into controversy,
thanks to their occasional use of the dreaded E-word: evolution.
In several US states, Imax cinemas -- including some at
science museums -- are refusing to show movies that mention
the subject or suggest that Earth's origins do not conform
with biblical descriptions.
Films include Cosmic Voyage, an animated journey through the
universe; Galapagos, a do***entary about the islands where
Darwin made some of his most im****tant observations; and
Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, an underwater epic about the
bizarre creatures that flourish near ocean vents.
In most southern states, theatre officials found recent test
screenings of several of these films triggered accusations
from viewers that the films were blasphemous.
Carol Murray, marketing director of the Fort Worth Museum of
Science and History in Texas, said audience members who had
watched Volcanoes had commented 'I really hate it when the
theory of evolution is presented as fact', or 'I don't agree
with their presentation of human existence.'
As a result, the science museum had decided not to screen
the film. 'If it is not going to draw a crowd and it is
going to create controversy, from a marketing point of view,
I cannot make a recommendation,' Murray told the New York
Times yesterday.
Superficially, the decision affects only a dozen or so
cinemas. But it could have a profound knock-on effect across
the world because of the high cost of producing Imax films.
They require special cameras and expensive projectors. The
economics of Imax film-making are therefore very tight, and
the actions of these southern Imax cinemas will only
exacerbate the problem. It is expected that producers will
be far less likely to make films that could offend
fundamentalists, as the loss of venues in the southern
states could be enough to turn profit to loss.
'It is going to be hard for our film-makers to continue to
make unfettered do***entaries when they know that 10 per
cent of the market will reject them,' said Joe DeAmicis,
vice-president of the California Science Centre in Los Angeles.
This point was emphasised by Bayley Silleck, who wrote and
directed Cosmic Voyage. Many institutions across America
were coming under pressure about issues relating to natural
selection. 'They have to be extremely careful as to how they
present anything relating to evolution,' he said.
A spokesman for the Science Museum in London described the
development as worrying: 'It is a very tight market in the
Imax business and we would be extremely disappointed if this
sort of pressure led to a narrowing of the market for
popular Imax films. These films are very popular with families.'
The decision has also dismayed James Cameron, the Hollywood
director who made the Imax film Aliens of the Deep and who
was one of the producers of Volcanoes. He said he was
'surprised and somewhat offended' that people were sensitive
to the references to evolution in Volcanoes.
He also revealed that objections had been made to parts of
Aliens of the Deep, but these had remained in the final cut.
'It seems to be a new phenomenon, obviously symptomatic of
our ****ft away from empiricism in science to faith-based
science,' he said.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587154838/thedanclorenecro/
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immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
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