Reason Cinema: Bringing Humanism and Film Together

The American Humanist Association has launched a new project and website to promote and support humanist films—just in time for the upcoming first-ever freethought film festival.

Reason Cinema is a film series project sponsored by the American Humanist Association. Since 2008, the AHA has hosted free screenings of films with humanist or progressive themes open to the public in Washington DC and other cities in the United States. These screenings are often followed by informative discussions with directors, producers, and leading philosophers and policy experts on humanist issues. Our aim is to advance a secular agenda through innovative films that connect humanism and the arts.

Visit Reason Cinema’s new website at www.reasoncinema.com. 

The AHA has recently helped promote the major motion pictures Creation starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly and The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig; the Sundance award-winning documentary FUEL; PBS’s miniseries Becoming Human; comedian Bill Maher’s Religulous; Vivek Palavali’s Creator of God, and more.

The AHA is also a lead sponsor of the first International Freethought Film Festival, to be held at the historic Tampa Theatre in Tampa, Florida from May 13 to May 15, 2011. Visit www.freethoughtfilmfest.org for the latest updates, or read an interview with Andrea Steele, the festival’s organizer, in Humanist Network News.

Movies that we’ve co-sponsored or promoted include:

• Creation, a major motion picture starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly
• Becoming Darwin, a three-part PBS miniseries on evolution
• FUEL, a documentary on biodiesel by Josh Tickell
• Religulous, a comedic critique of religious belief from comedian Bill Maher
• The Golden Compass, a major motion picture on the children’s book by 2008 International Humanist of the Year Philip Pullman
• The God Who Wasn’t There, directed by Brian Flemming
• Heart of the Beholder, directed by Darlene Lieblich
• So Help Me God, directed by Simon Cole
• Creator of God, written and directed by Vivek Palavali

If you are a filmmaker interested in promoting your film, or are interested in volunteering with Reason Cinema, contact us at reasoncinema@americanhumanist.org.