This film screened 13th April 2016.

The year is 2001; all plant life on earth has become extinct. The last remaining specimens have been gathered in giant geodesic domes on space freighters, in orbit around Saturn until the time comes to return and reforest the earth.

Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) is the resident botanist in one of the giant greenhouses, dutifully tending, with the aid of three little robots, to the plants and animals under his care.When news comes from earth to destroy the greenhouse and return with immediate effect, Lowell is compelled to insubordinate action.

The debut film by SFX wizard Douglas Trumbull, Silent Running’s ecological message continues to resonate.

GUEST SPEAKERS: Ella McSweeney (Presenter, RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground) and Yvonne Buckley (Chair of Zoology, Head of Biodiversity, TCD) will discuss topic of extinction before this screening.

Screening as part of Futures Past: How Cinema of the Past Has Imagined Our Future, a season of films with guest speakers, presented in collaboration with Science Gallery Dublin.