Center for the literary arts in New York State
Inventing Tomorrow
Documentary praised for "a sense of optimism"
Friday, October 4, 2019
7 p.m. - Conversation, Q/A with director Laura Nix
Page Hall, UAlbany downtown campus
135 Western Avenue, Albany
Free and open to the public
(USA, 2018, 87 minutes, color)
Directed by Laura Nix
Teenage inventors from India, Indonesia, Mexico and the USA, attempt to find solutions to the world’s most urgent environmental problems—including climate change, water and air pollution, and mass extinction— in this award-winning documentary.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film “inspirational and invigorating” and said “the young scientists… have a passion and enthusiasm that’s a tonic to the soul.”
INVENTING TOMORROW was a nominee for the 2018 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was awarded the 2018 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary Competition and praised by the festival's judges: “For its compelling cast of young visionaries from around the globe who are engaged and looking for solutions to the world’s environmental problems, 'Inventing Tomorrow' offers us a sense of optimism and the certainty that science matters."
Classic Film Series
Laura Nix is a director, writer and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. Her most recent work, a short film titled WALK RUN CHA-CHA had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, and launches on New York Times Op-Docs Summer 2019. Her previous films include THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING (2014), THE LIGHT IN HER EYES (2011), and WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT: THE STORY OF HEDWIG (2003).
Screened in association with UAlbany’s new Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, now offering the first Bachelor of Science degree of its kind in the United States.
For more information about the new major, visit: www.albany.edu/environmental-sustainable-engineering/
“Inventing Tomorrow” is about young and passionate innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats — found right in their own backyards — while navigating the doubts and insecurities that mark adolescence.
-- Laura Nix
About The Classic Film Series
The NYS Writers Institute’s Classic Film Series, presented with support from Marc Guggenheim, UAlbany Class of ‘92, features screenings of domestic and international films of distinction and film festivals devoted to the work of particular directors, producers, or screenwriters.
The series has included rare films culled from archives and private collections, pre-release screenings from major studios, contemporary international offerings, as well as classics made in the U.S. The Institute will launch the Albany Film Festival in March 2020.
Classic Film Series
Some of the filmmakers and screenwriters who have visited the Institute have included Hal Ashby, Hector Babenco, Costa-Gavras, Tomas Gutierrez-Alea, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, Neil Jordan, Spike Lee, Albert Mayseles, Gordon Parks, Sr., Raoul Peck, D.A. Pennebacker and Chris Hegedus, Bob Rafelson, Phil Alden Robinson, Wallace Shawn, Ron Shelton, Christine Vachon, Agnes Varda, and Robert Wise, and Doug Wright.