'True False, Hot Cold': Film Screening & Discussion

Join the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) and the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences (EAPS) on Tuesday, April 30 from 4:30-6:30pm in the Building 55 atrium for a film screening and discussion about climate change, belief, and talking with people you don't agree with.

The award-winning documentary series, True False, Hot Cold was filmed over three months in a county of Utah that has some of the least belief in climate change in the United States. Each short episode features conversations with farmers, ranchers, cowboys, coal miners, and other county residents about climate change. But instead of focusing on divisions, the series weaves these interviews and vignettes of everyday life to offer ideas about how to build bridges between people who have very different identities and beliefs.

Episode screenings will be punctuated with open conversation with the audience, filmmaker, and MIT staff and faculty incorporating these values and approaches into their MIT work.

Light refreshments will be served.

In the event that this screening reaches capacity, attendance of the MIT community will be prioritized. 

Featuring

• Ben Stillerman, filmmaker and founder of the Social Cohesion Lab
• Prof. Deb Roy, faculty director, MIT Center for Constructive Communication
• Laur Hesse Fisher, program director at MIT Climate and founder of the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship

The event is hosted by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative and the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. It is sponsored by the MIT Climate Nucleus.

About the Social Cohesion Lab

The Social Cohesion Lab is a collection of experts from various fields, with experience in documentary film, technology, the social sciences, community outreach, and nonprofit consulting. They produce content which shows civil dialogue in action and humanizes difference. Then we think of inventive ways to get it out to people. True False, Hot Cold is their first project.

About the MIT Center for Constructive Communication

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) believes that hearing the humanity in others through trustworthy communication channels is necessary for democracy, for communities, and for institutions to function. Informed by years of social media and media analytics, CCC's work combines the ancient wisdoms of human conversation with emerging digital technologies to promote shared understanding and trust rather than reinforcing the “side-taking” and binary thinking that too often divides us. Based at the MIT Media Lab and working closely with the non-profit Cortico, CCC brings together researchers in AI, computational social science, digital interactive design, and learning technologies with software engineers, journalists, political scientists, designers, and community organizations. An important aspect of CCC is its commitment to reach both within and beyond academia to work closely with locally based organizations to launch pilot programs focused on building a culture of listening and dialogue that promotes a sense of shared understanding, empathy, and trust.

About the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative's Journalism Fellowship

Launched in spring 2021, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative’s Journalism Fellowship supports freelance or staff journalists associated with U.S. local/regional newsrooms in developing a high-impact news project that connects local perspectives, values, and priorities with climate change science and solutions. The Fellowship is part of ESI’s program to engage Americans, states, and communities as they face climate impacts, solutions ,and an emerging low-carbon economy.