ThoughtGallery.org > Of the Deep: Films by the Department of Tropical Research

Of the Deep: Films by the Department of Tropical Research

William Beebe in the 1930s, in his steel-walled sphere—the Bathysphere, made record-setting dives fathoms below the ocean surface to discover marine organisms living in darkness.

A famed ecologist, ornithologist, and ichthyologist from New York, Beebe’s research crew was named the Department of Tropical Research (DTR). Women and men, scientists and artists, belonged to the DTR (part of the New York Zoological Society, now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society), and some went on to Hollywood fame. Members Ruth Rose and Ernest Schoedsack made King Kong, and Floyd Crosby (Tabu, High Noon) got his first professional experience behind a movie camera on a 1927 expedition to Haiti. On February 25, Science on Screen presents documentary films that Crosby and other DTR members shot, some of which have not been screened since the Department of Tropical Research toured with them in the 1930s.

The film program will be introduced by Jon Dohlin, Vice President and Director of the New York Aquarium, and presented with live musical accompaniment by High Water. It will be followed by a discussion about marine ecology and underwater filmmaking with conservation biologist and whale researcher Howard Rosenbaum and Fabien Cousteau, grandson of pioneer Jacques Cousteau and himself an oceanographic explorer and filmmaker.

Before the film program, hand-colored lanternslides from the Department of Tropical Research expeditions will play. Music from DTR cinematographer Floyd Crosby’s son, David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, & Nash), will also be featured.











When: Sun., Feb. 25, 2018 at 2:00 pm
Where: Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35th Ave.
718-777-6888
Price: $15
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William Beebe in the 1930s, in his steel-walled sphere—the Bathysphere, made record-setting dives fathoms below the ocean surface to discover marine organisms living in darkness.

A famed ecologist, ornithologist, and ichthyologist from New York, Beebe’s research crew was named the Department of Tropical Research (DTR). Women and men, scientists and artists, belonged to the DTR (part of the New York Zoological Society, now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society), and some went on to Hollywood fame. Members Ruth Rose and Ernest Schoedsack made King Kong, and Floyd Crosby (Tabu, High Noon) got his first professional experience behind a movie camera on a 1927 expedition to Haiti. On February 25, Science on Screen presents documentary films that Crosby and other DTR members shot, some of which have not been screened since the Department of Tropical Research toured with them in the 1930s.

The film program will be introduced by Jon Dohlin, Vice President and Director of the New York Aquarium, and presented with live musical accompaniment by High Water. It will be followed by a discussion about marine ecology and underwater filmmaking with conservation biologist and whale researcher Howard Rosenbaum and Fabien Cousteau, grandson of pioneer Jacques Cousteau and himself an oceanographic explorer and filmmaker.

Before the film program, hand-colored lanternslides from the Department of Tropical Research expeditions will play. Music from DTR cinematographer Floyd Crosby’s son, David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, & Nash), will also be featured.

Buy tickets/get more info now