Online Filmmaker Q&A: “Tesla” Director Michael Almereyda

Join writer and director Michael Almereyda and actor Blake DeLong for an in-depth conversation on Tesla, originally scheduled to screen at the 2020 SFFILM Festival and supported through SFFILM’s Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship.

Watch Tesla online now via IFC Films, and register to attend this free online discussion on September 30.

Ethan Hawke portrays Nikola Tesla as a kind of steampunk New Romantic in this captivating imaginative drama from Michael Almereyda (Experimenter, Festival 2015). Tesla recounts the life of the inventor of alternating current and the subsequent electricity wars that pitted him against powerful Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) and brought him the romantic attentions of Sarah Bernhardt. Almereyda has great fun exploding the trappings of the “period piece,” positing new possibilities and ways to represent history and its winners and losers with playfulness and verve.

“Pinging back and forth in audacious ways between the late 18th century and the present, Almereyda assembles an aptly livewire account of an unknowable outsider whose ideas about a world connected by wireless technology now make him seem like a field-leading visionary.” –David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

This event is part of the Sloan Science on Screen program, launched by SFFILM in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation — the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts — to enhance public understanding of science through the language of film. SFFILM’s Sloan Science in Cinema initiative includes four interconnected programs — fellowships, screenwriting workshops, awards, and exhibition opportunities — that elevate filmmakers who tackle scientific or technological themes. Both the Sloan Foundation and SFFILM believe that filmmakers have the power to immerse audiences in the challenges and rewards of scientific discovery while illuminating the intersections between science, technology, and our daily lives.

Attendees who RSVP for this event will be automatically registered for the online conversation. You will receive an email with the Zoom link that will allow you to join the Q&A. We recommend that you download and install Zoom on your computer or mobile device in advance, and set yourself up with a free account. Attendees will have a chance to participate in the Q&A by sending in questions privately to our moderator.

Learn more about how to use Zoom and attending our virtual events here.