March 19, 2005

The Devil Goes Widescreen: How IMAX Threatens Christianity

The New York Times reveals yet another battleground in the anti-evolutionist War on Science. The latest potential portals of heretical thought? IMAX movie theatres:

The fight over evolution has reached the big, big screen.

Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to show movies that mention the subject - or the Big Bang or the geology of the earth - fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures.

The number of theaters rejecting such films is small, people in the industry say - perhaps a dozen or fewer, most in the South. But because only a few dozen Imax theaters routinely show science documentaries, the decisions of a few can have a big impact on a film's bottom line - or a producer's decision to make a documentary in the first place.

[...]

"Volcanoes," released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South, said Dr. Richard Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.

Carol Murray, director of marketing for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, said the museum decided not to offer the movie after showing it to a sample audience, a practice often followed by managers of Imax theaters. Ms. Murray said 137 people participated in the survey, and while some thought it was well done, "some people said it was blasphemous."

In their written comments, she explained, they made statements like "I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact," or "I don't agree with their presentation of human existence."

[...]

"We have definitely a lot more creation public than evolution public," said Lisa Buzzelli, who directs the Charleston Imax Theater in South Carolina, a commercial theater next to the Charleston Aquarium. Her theater had not ruled out ever showing "Volcanoes," Ms. Buzzelli said, "but being in the Bible Belt, the movie does have a lot to do with evolution, and we weigh that carefully."

Pietro Serapiglia, who handles distribution for the producer Stephen Low of Montreal, whose company made the film, said officials at other theaters told him they could not book the movie "for religious reasons," because it had "evolutionary overtones" or "would not go well with the Christian community" or because "the evolution stuff is a problem."

Hyman Field, who as a science foundation official had a role in the financing of "Volcanoes," said he understood that theaters must be responsive to their audiences. But Dr. Field he said he was "furious" that a science museum would decide not to show a scientifically accurate documentary like "Volcanoes" because it mentioned evolution.

"It's very alarming," he said, "all of this pressure being put on a lot of the public institutions by the fundamentalists."

[read the rest here]

It's one thing, of course, for a privately run movie theatre to decide what films to show. But in this case, it seems that, once again, the threat of blowback from a bellicose and aggressive minority is depriving the rest of the populace of the opportunity of the freedom to choose. Make no mistake; this is even a question of arguing for 'equal time' for theories of Intelligent Design. This is a flagrant attempt to put a stop to any discussion of evolution -- and that should send chills down the spine of anyone who cares about education and public discourse. (One has to wonder why the throngs of outraged conservatives condemning bias in schools aren't leading the charge against such a concerted effort to stifle debate.)

The anti-evolution campaign may have been born and nourished in the often unscrutinized schoolboard politics of small town America, but it's hard to deny that its influence is spreading -- and that few institutions, private or public, are eager to take on the challenge. It's important to support and publicize the efforts of groups like the Dover parents, but it is equally essential to make sure that companies like IMAX know that their actions are being watched by those outside the fundamentalist community as well.

posted by sangwyn at March 19, 2005 06:30 PM

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