this should be of interest...


The New York Times
March 19, 2005

A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano
By CORNELIA DEAN

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.

People who follow trends at commercial and institutional Imax theaters 
say that in recent years, religious controversy has adversely affected 
the distribution of a number of films, including "Cosmic Voyage," which 
depicts the universe in dimensions running from the scale of subatomic 
particles to clusters of galaxies; "Galápagos," about the islands where 
Darwin theorized about evolution; and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," an 
underwater epic about the bizarre creatures that flourish in the hot, 
sulfurous emanations from vents in the ocean floor.

"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."

On other criteria, like narration and music, the film did not score as 
well as other films, Ms. Murray said, and over all, it did not receive 
high marks, so she recommended that the museum pass.

"If it's not going to draw a crowd and it is going to create 
controversy," she said, "from a marketing standpoint I cannot make a 
recommendation" to show it.

In interviews, officials at other Imax theaters said they had similarly 
decided against the film for fear of offending some audiences.

"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."

People who follow the issue say it is more likely to arise at science 
centers and other public institutions than at commercial theaters. The 
filmmaker James Cameron, who was a producer on "Volcanoes," said the 
commercial film he made on the same topic, "Aliens of the Deep," had 
not encountered opposition, except during post-production, when "it was 
requested from some theaters that we change a line of dialogue" 
relating to sun worship by ancient Egyptians. The line remained, he 
said.

Mr. Cameron said he was "surprised and somewhat offended" that people 
were sensitive to the references to evolution in "Volcanoes."

"It seems to be a new phenomenon," he said, "obviously symptomatic of 
our shift away from empiricism in science to faith-based science."

Some in the industry say they fear that documentary filmmakers will 
steer clear of science topics likely to offend religious 
fundamentalists.

Large-format science documentaries "are generally not big moneymakers," 
said Joe DeAmicis, vice president for marketing at the California 
Science Center in Los Angeles and formerly the director of its Imax 
theater. "It's going to be hard for our filmmakers to continue to make 
unfettered documentaries when they know going in that 10 percent of the 
market" will reject them.

Others who follow the issue say many institutions are not able to 
resist such pressure.

"They have to be extremely careful as to how they present anything 
relating to evolution," said Bayley Silleck, who wrote and directed 
"Cosmic Voyage." Mr. Silleck said he confronted religious objections to 
that film and predicted he would face them again with a project he is 
working on now, about dinosaurs.

Of course, a number of factors affect a theater manager's decision 
about a movie. Mr. Silleck said an Imax documentary about oil fires in 
Kuwait "never reached its distribution potential" because it had shots 
of the first Persian Gulf war. "The theaters decided their patrons 
would be upset at seeing the bodies," he said.

"We all have to make films for an audience that is a family audience," 
he went on, "when you are talking about Imax, because they are in 
science centers and museums."

He added, however, "there are a number of us who are concerned that 
there is a kind of tacit overcaution, overprotectedness of the audience 
on the part of theater operators."

In any event, censoring films like "Volcanoes" is not an option, said 
Dr. Field, who said Mr. Low, the film's producer, got in touch with him 
when the evolution issue arose to ask whether the film should be 
altered.

"I said absolutely not," recalled Dr. Field, who retired from the 
National Science Foundation last year.

Mr. Low said that arguments over religion and science disturbed him 
because of his own religious faith. In his view, he said, science is "a 
celebration of what nature or God has done. So for me, there's no 
conflict."

Dr. Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer, recalled a showing of "Volcanoes" 
he and Mr. Low attended at the New England Aquarium. When the movie 
ended, a little girl stood in the audience to challenge Mr. Low on the 
film's suggestion that Earth might have formed billions of years ago in 
the explosion of a star. "I thought God created the Earth," she said.

He replied, "Maybe that's how God did it."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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