This year’s Science on Screen series at the blessedly reopened Belcourt is bookended by films about a doomed search for the origins of humankind and a dystopian near-future vision of its potential end. Feels appropriate enough for the return of the series after skipping last year because [gestures wildly at all the things]. The annual series kicks off on Friday with 2001: A Space Odyssey, and if you haven’t seen a movie in public for some time, you could do far worse than Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic for your first trip back to the theater. The film will screen Friday, Saturday and Sunday and will be introduced by NASA scientist and Vanderbilt alum Tracie Prater, who manages space habitat systems development at the Marshall Space Flight Center. After that comes 1956’s undersung but influential Forbidden Planet (showing June 12-13) and 2011’s fresh take on alien invasion Attack the Block (June 16) — the latter coming after the recent announcement of a sequel that will bring John Boyega back to the story that introduced him to most of us. The series closes with Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (June 23), arguably one of the best films so far this century and a reminder of the days when Clive Owen was a movie star. 2001: A Space Odyssey screens Friday-Sunday, June 4-6; Science on Screen continues through June 23 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. STEVEN HALE
Watch Science On Screen: 2001 — A Space Odyssey at the Belcourt
