Wigan S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)’s programme kicked off on September 16, with a showing of last year’s The Martian and a green screen workshop.
Upcoming sci-fi films include Tron, Inception, and Looper. The programme also features older, less well known films such as the 1927 expressionist silent film Metropolis.
The workshops link to the films screened each evening and feature specialised topics including 3D printing, videogames, snow art, particle acceleration and the science of suggestion. They are informal gatherings featuring presentations or tasks run by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) ambassadors.
The evenings have been supported by the BFI’s Film Hub North West Central (part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network which invests National Lottery funding into initiatives that bring a wider range of films to audiences across the UK who may not otherwise have the opportunity to see them ) and are open to everyone, but with a specific focus on young people from hard-to-reach groups who are currently underrepresented in non-mainstream film offerings.
Elizabeth Griffiths of Wigan Small Cinema said: “This is the first time I have looked through a film programme aimed at young adults and thought that every single topic is one that would be engaging for them.
“In the year of his tragic passing we are predicting our David Bowie themed evening will be particularly popular, with a Bowie art workshop and a screening of his first starring performance, The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
The full list of upcoming screenings and workshops is as follows:
TRON
14th October 2016
Videogame workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
Sci-fi thriller in which a young computer genius (Jeff Bridges) is sucked into a master computer system while trying to hack it to prove that his ideas for video games are being stolen.
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
21st October 2016
David Bowie art workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
A space alien (David Bowie) crash lands on Earth, seeking help for his drought-stricken planet. By securing patents to advanced technology, he becomes a fabulously wealthy industrialist.
INCEPTION
4th November 2016
Science of suggestion workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable.
12 MONKEYS
18th November 2016
Bio hazard workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (Bruce Willis) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic.
THE THING
19th December 2016
Snow art workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
An American Research Base is greeted by an alien force than can assimilate anything it touches. It’s up to the members to stay alive and be sure of who is human, and who has become one of the Things.
METROPOLIS
13th January 2017
3D printing workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
1927 silent expressionist sci-fi. In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a saviour to mediate their differences.
DARK STAR
20th January 2017
Comic workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
In the far reaches of space, a small crew, 20 years into their solitary mission, find things beginning to go hilariously wrong.
MOON
3rd February 2017
Space ambassador workshop – 7pm
Screening – 8pm
Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has a quintessentially personal encounter towards the end of his three-year stint on the moon.
LOOPER
17th February 2017
Particle acceleration workshop – 7pm
Screening – 7.30pm
In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits. One of these hired guns is Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who one day learns the mob wants to ‘close the loop’ by sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination.
