SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM MSRIʼS HISTORY OF OUTREACH
• Hosting theater events: Tom Stoppard
• Regular musical performances
• Evening with Steve Martin, Robin Williams
• Fermatfest
• Art exhibits
• Films, videos
ABOUT RE-PURPOSING OLD MATERIAL
N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős (1993) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/nisanumber.html
Produced independently with grants from NSF and some small foundations, broadcast in six countries, numerous awards, still selling in DVD and streaming after 22 years in release.
The question of giving life to old material arose.
• This film was shot between 1988 and 1991 in 16mm.
• Completed and released in 1993.
• Three lectures filmed during production were released as a separate DVD by MAA even before the film was finished.
• In 2013 we used old footage and new footage to edit a 30-minute film called Erdös 100.
• In 2015 we used old and new footage to edit and release a 21-minute film called Something New Every Day, a tribute to the mathematician Ron Graham.
• In 2016 I will release a new DVD containing the bulk of the four raw interviews conducted with Paul Erdös for the film between 1988 and 1991. This is just one example. Since the 1990s I have been involved in the restoration of several films featuring important mathematicians, including a classic documentary about R. L. Moore filmed in 1966, which was thought to be lost until we found one copy in 16mm at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
ZALA FILMS COLLABORATIONS WITH MSRI
Invitation to Discover (2002) A 15-minute film to introduce MSRI to the public. porridge pulleys and Pi (2003) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/porridgepulleysandpi.ht ml
The Right Spin (2005) 35-minute interview with Astronaut Michael Foale. The story of a dramatic rescue in space and the mathematics behind it. Narrated by Robert Osserman. Produced by the Clay Mathematics Institute and the Mathematical Sciuences Research Institute for Mathematics Awareness Week. Released in DVD,
17 Gauss Way (2009)
On Mathematical Grounds (2009)
The Music of John Cage (2009)
Mathematics is Everywhere (2011)
Taking the Long View: The Life of Shiing-shen Chern (2011) http://www.takingthelongviewfilm.com/
Counting from Infinity: Yitang Zhang and the Twin Prime Conjecture (2015) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/countingindex.html
Navajo Math Circles (2016) http://www.zalafilms.com/navajo
Tadashiʼs Toys (2015-ongoing) https://www.msri.org/web/msri/public/public-events- and-initiatives/tadashis-toys
Zala Films Collaboration with MAA
I Want To Be a Mathematician: A Conversation With Paul Halmos (2009) A 44-minute interview with mathematician Paul Halmos that touches on the Moore Method, becoming a mathematician, great teachers, designing a course, writing, and the state of education in the United States.
Hard Problems (2008) http://www.hardproblemsmovie.com/
Hard Problems: The Road To the World's Toughest Math Contest (2008) An 82-minute documentary produced in HDV, Hard Problems documents the formation of the 2006 U. S. International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team, showing how high school students are selected, train, and then compete with students from 90 countries in the 2006 IMO. Produced in association with the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), with support from Ellington Management Group, LLC, The Penn Oberlander Family Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. A one-hour version edited for television was broadcast on PBS stations via American Public Television (APT) starting in October 2009.
Zala Films Math Films made Independently
Julia Robinson and Hilbertʼs Tenth Problem (2008) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/juliarobinson.html
• Took nine years
Science Lives: A biography series with the Simons Foundation
Simons Foundation Science Lives series https://www.simonsfoundation.org/category/multimedi a/science-lives/
An Example of international coordination
Events dedicated to Martin Gardner. The common idea is recreational mathematics
-- Gathering4Gardner meets every other year in Atlanta, Georgia--by invitation only, but the 7-10 minute talks presented there are
-- Celebration of Mind is an annual event held around the end of October organized by people connected to Gathering4Gardner. It is public, attracts children, adults, and the locales vary between 150 to 250 in different years.
For connecting with science tv and broadcast media:
World Congress of Science & Factual Producers http://www.wcsfp.com/index.php/2015/who_we_are
FINAL COMMENTS
What I bring to the field as a non-mathematician.
• I once liked to think I am a first world ethnographer, and mathematicians are a really interesting and under-studied exotic group.
• The grain of truth there is that for me the people still come first. People are interested in people, and by presenting an approachable picture of a person, you can then smuggle in some math. This can lead to interest in the math itself.
• Must have a story, either a breakthrough, or unique approach in math.
• What seems to be in demand is the production of short pieces for various internet-based platforms.
This is ideal for re-packaging nuggets from older works, for presenting new ideas, for covering lots of different things.
•Numberphile.
• Tadashiʼs Toys
I donʼt think of my work as mathematics outreach, but I have nothing against you calling it that.
THE FILMS
N is a Number: A pPortrait of Paul Erdös (1993) http://www.zalafilms.com/films//nisanumber.html porridge pulleys and Pi (2004) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/porridgepulleysandpi.ht ml
Julia Robinson and Hilbertʼs Tenth Problem (2008) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/juliarobinson.html
Hard Problems (2008) http://www.hardproblemsmovie.com/
Taking the Long View: The Life of Shiing-shen Chern (2011) http://www.takingthelongviewfilm.com/
Counting from Infinity: Yitang Zhang and the Twin Prime Conjecture (2015) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/countingindex.html
Something New Every Day (2015) http://www.zalafilms.com/films/something.html
Navajo Math Circles (2016) http://www.zalafilms.com/navajo
OTHER RESOURCES Simons Foundation Science Lives series https://www.simonsfoundation.org/category/multimedi a/science-lives/
Tadashiʼs Toys (2015) https://www.msri.org/web/msri/public/public-events- and-initiatives/tadashis-toys
MSRI Public Events And Initiatives http://www.msri.org/web/msri/public/public-events- and-initiatives
Gathering4Gardner http://gathering4gardner.org/VIDEOS.html
Celebration of Mind http://www.celebrationofmind.org/wordpress_site/
World Congress of Science & Factual Producers http://www.wcsfp.com/index.php/2015/who_we_are
******* Zala Films www.zalafilms.com